II.

Did the land sleep? The woodman’s axe had ceased Its ringing notes upon the beech and plane; The grapes were gather’d in; the vintage feast Was closed upon the hills, the reaper’s strain Hush’d by the streams; the year was in its wane, The night in its mid watch--it was a time E’en mark’d and hallow’d unto slumber’s reign; But thoughts were stirring, restless and sublime, And o’er his white Alps moved the spirit of the clime.