Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Cadenabbia lyrics

No sound of wheels or hoof-beat breaks   The silence of the summer day, As by the loveliest of all lakes   I while the idle hours away. I pace the leafy colonnade   Where level branches of the plane Above me weave a roof of shade   Impervious to the sun and rain. At times a sudden rush of air   Flutters the lazy leaves o'erhead, And gleams of sunshine toss and flare   Like torches down the path I tread. By Somariva's garden gate   I make the marble stairs my seat, And hear the water, as I wait,   Lapping the steps beneath my feet. The undulation sinks and swells   Along the stony parapets, And far away the floating bells   Tinkle upon the fisher's nets. Silent and slow, by tower and town   The freighted barges come and go, Their pendent shadows gliding down   By town and tower submerged below. The hills sweep upward from the shore,   With villas scattered one by one Upon their wooded spurs, and lower   Bellaggio blazing in the sun. And dimly seen, a tangled ma**   Of walls and woods, of light and shade, Stands beckoning up the Stelvio Pa**   Varenna with its white cascade. I ask myself, Is this a dream?   Will it all vanish into air? Is there a land of such supreme   And perfect beauty anywhere? Sweet vision! Do not fade away;   Linger until my heart shall take Into itself the summer day,   And all the beauty of the lake. Linger until upon my brain   Is stamped an image of the scene, Then fade into the air again,   And be as if thou hadst not been.