FAIREST of all Peninsulas,
     Eyelet * of islands, Sirmio!
Of all the wide wave bathes, the best,
     Where'er its varied waters flow:
So glad, so joyful my return,
     So fondly I revisit thee,
I scarce can feel, that, Thynia left,
That, from Bithynia's valleys reft,
     Thee, once again, I safely see.

Oh! feels the heart a happier hour,
     Than when, its every sorrow fled,
Thrown now aside, its painful load,
Accomplished now, its weary road,
Reached now, the land that gave it birth,
Its native home, its holy hearth,
     It rests upon its own, its long, long, wished-for bed?
Oh! this, for toilsome road and rough,
And labour hard, is meed enough.

Hail, then, lovely Sirmio!
     Smile once more, upon your lord;
Lydian waves, that round me flow,
     Your murmuring welcome, now afford:
Every smile you have, my home!
Sport it now; the wanderer's come.

* Ocelle, little-eye,--a term of endearment. So Cicero; villulae meae, ocelli Italiae.

Project Canterbury