on the morrow Christ would rise again.
From the sea far below comes up the odorous breeze, while
on its waters four white sails rock slowly to and fro in the sun.
The poet's thoughts wander to where, in the solemn shades of Certosa and on the flowering banks of the Arno, lie at rest the beloved ones. But quickly, with the sudden waking from the nap, is dispelled the vision of the poet and with it the modern introspective gloom; these give place to the realism and the day-light contentment of the old time:
Lauretta's joyous song was ringing through all the chambers
While Bice,[6] bending over her frame, followed silent the work of the needle.
There is something majestic in the moral portraiture of the poem on “The Mother.” [XX] We seem to be looking on a colossal bronze figure, in which are blended pure natural joy and an instinct of the divine holiness of motherhood. The reproach contained in the last verse belongs to the present time of social unrest; it is hard to convey in English the full intent of the subtle phrase:
la giustizia pia del lavoro—.
Paul Bourget speaks, in his Sensations d'Italie, of the simplicity “peculiar to the lofty style of Italian poetry introduced by Dante, under which one feels the glorious origin of the language”; and he quotes, as illustrating this simplicity, Carducci's “divine sonnet” commencing:
Passa la nave mia, sola, tra il pianto.