And my heart leaps to cross that narrow sea.

Whereto my good Lorenzo thus made answer,

And spoke low to himself, with doubting air:

"Ah! the fair mountains of Limbara yonder—

The pictured lies—only afar are fair.

"They seem like sapphires in the magic distance—

Like wondrous crystal domes they kiss the sky;

But when the weary, spell-drawn wanderer nears them,

They throw the purple and the glitter by.

"They offer you their gray sides, rude and naked,