Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | VI. Animate Nature | | The Ox | | Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907) |
| | From the Italian by Frank Sewall
From the “Poesie”
I LOVE thee, pious ox; a gentle feeling | |
| Of vigor and of peace thou giv’st my heart. | |
| How solemn, like a monument, thou art! | |
| Over wide fertile fields thy calm gaze stealing, | |
| Unto the yoke with grave contentment kneeling, | 5 |
| To man’s quick work thou dost thy strength impart. | |
| He shouts and goads, and answering thy smart, | |
| Thou turn’st on him thy patient eyes appealing. | |
| From thy broad nostrils, black and wet, arise | |
| Thy breath’s soft fumes; and on the still air swells, | 10 |
| Like happy hymn, thy lowing’s mellow strain. | |
| In the grave sweetness of thy tranquil eyes | |
| Of emerald, broad and still reflected dwells | |
| All the divine green silence of the plain. | | | | |
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