12th. Wrote “La Velia” (38 lines).
15th. Agnes and Lill, Charles Holroyd and the P—s and I went to Tusculum by morning train. Very warm as soon as we got to Frascati. Lovely Tramontana day. Took a donkey to carry the wine and provisions: or Lill, if necessary. After a long walk, lunched in the Theatre at Tusculum. Wreathed the donkey with ivy and some early blooms, and then I rode on it on to the stage, à la Bacchus, flasks of Frascati under either arm.
Most glorious sunset. The view from the height above Tusculum simply superb, and worth coming to see from any part of the world.
17th. Yesterday was one of the most glorious days possible in Rome. Cloudless sky: fresh sweet breeze: deliciously warm. Went with A. to Porto d’Anzio again, and walked along the coast northward. Sea unspeakably glorious: blue, sunlit, with great green foam-crested waves breaking on the sands, and surging in among the hollow tufa rocks and old Roman remains. Lay for a long time at the extreme end of the Arco Muto. One of the red letter days in one’s life.
Stayed up all night (till Breakfast) writing: then revising. Between 8 p.m. and 4 A.M. wrote poem after poem with unbroken eagerness. The impulse was an irresistible one, as I was tired and not, at first, strongly inclined to write, though no sooner had I written the Italian “Dedicatory Lines” than it all came upon me. In all, besides these, I wrote “Al Far della Notte” (31 lines): “Clouds, from the Agro Romano” (31): “The Olives of Tivoli” (30): “At Veii” (86): “The Bather” (68): “De Profundis” (26): and “Ultimo Sospiro” (37).
18th. Beautiful day. Felt none the worse for being up all night. Wrote article on Ibsen’s ‘Rosmersholm’ for Y. F. P. Wrote “Spuma dal Mare” (41 lines).
WILLIAM SHARP
After a pastel drawing by Charles Ross, 1891