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IL PADRONE.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The wind upon our quarter lies,

And on before the freshening gale,

That fills the snow-white lateen sail,

Swiftly our light felucca flies,

Around the billows burst and foam;

They lift her o'er the sunken rock,

They beat her sides with many a shock,

And then upon their flowing dome

They poise her, like a weathercock!

Between us and the western skies

The hills of Corsica arise;

Eastward in yonder long blue line,

The summits of the Apennine,

And southward, and still far away,

Salerno, on its sunny bay.

You cannot see it, where it lies.