| |
| AFLOAT; we move—delicious! Ah, | |
| What else is like the gondola? | |
| This level flow of liquid glass | |
| Begins beneath us swift to pass. | |
| It goes as though it went alone | 5 |
| By some impulsion of its own. | |
| (How light it moves, how softly! Ah, | |
| Were all things like the gondola!) | |
| |
| How light it moves, how softly! Ah, | |
| Could life, as does our gondola, | 10 |
| Unvexed with quarrels, aims, and cares, | |
| And moral duties and affairs, | |
| Unswaying, noiseless, swift, and strong, | |
| For ever thus—thus glide along! | |
| (How light we move, how softly! Ah, | 15 |
| Were life but as the gondola!) | |
| |
| With no more motion than should bear | |
| A freshness to the languid air; | |
| With no more effort than expressed | |
| The need and naturalness of rest, | 20 |
| Which we beneath a grateful shade | |
| Should take on peaceful pillows laid! | |
| (How light we move, how softly! Ah, | |
| Were life but as the gondola!) | |
| |
| In one unbroken passage borne | 25 |
| To closing night from opening morn, | |
| Uplift at whiles slow eyes to mark | |
| Some palace-front, some passing bark; | |
| Through windows catch the varying shore, | |
| And hear the soft turns of the oar! | 30 |
| (How light we move, how softly! Ah, | |
| Were life but as the gondola!) | |
| |
