List--’twas the Cuckoo.--O with what delight Heard I that voice! and catch it now, though faint,[131] Far off and faint, and melting into air, Yet not to be mistaken. Hark again! Those louder cries give notice that the Bird, 5 Although invisible as Echo’s self,[132] Is wheeling hitherward. Thanks, happy Creature, For this unthought-of greeting! While allured From vale to hill, from hill to vale led on, We have pursued, through various lands, a long 10 And pleasant course; flower after flower has blown, Embellishing the ground that gave them birth With aspects novel to my sight; but still Most fair, most welcome, when they drank the dew In a sweet fellowship with kinds beloved, 15 For old remembrance sake. And oft--where Spring Display’d her richest blossoms among files Of orange-trees bedecked with glowing fruit Ripe for the hand, or under a thick shade Of Ilex, or, if better suited to the hour, 20 The lightsome Olive’s twinkling canopy--[133] Oft have I heard the Nightingale and Thrush Blending as in a common English grove Their love-songs; but, where’er my feet might roam, Whate’er assemblages of new and old, 25 Strange and familiar, might beguile the way, A gratulation from that vagrant Voice Was wanting;--and most happily till now. For see, Laverna! mark the far-famed Pile, High on the brink of that precipitous rock,[134] 30 Implanted like a Fortress, as in truth It is, a Christian Fortress, garrisoned In faith and hope, and dutiful obedience, By a few Monks, a stern society, Dead to the world and scorning earth-born joys. 35 Nay--though the hopes that drew, the fears that drove, St. Francis, far from Man’s resort, to abide Among these sterile heights of Apennine, [135] Bound him, nor, since he raised yon House, have ceased To bind his spiritual Progeny, with rules 40 Stringent as flesh can tolerate and live;[136] His milder Genius (thanks to the good God That made us) over those severe restraints Of mind, that dread heart-freezing discipline, Doth sometimes here predominate, and works 45 By unsought means for gracious purposes; For earth through heaven, for heaven, by changeful earth, Illustrated, and mutually endeared.