Rising from the purpling water
With her brow of stone,
Sprite or nymph or Triton's daughter,
Rising from the purpling water,
Capri sits alone--
Sits and looks across the billow
Now the day is done
Resting on her rocky pillow
Sits and looks across the billow
Toward the setting sun.
Misty visions trooping sadly
Glimmer through her tears,
Shapes of men contending madly,--
Misty visions trooping sadly
From the vanished years.
Here Tiberius from his palace
On the headland gray
Hurls his foes with gleeful malice,
Proud Tiberius at his palace
Murd'ring men for play.
There Lamarque's recruits advancing
Scale yon rocky spot,
'Neath the moon their bright steel glancing,
See Lamarque's recruits advancing
Through a storm of shot.
But today the goat bells' tinkle
And the vespers chime,
Vineyards shade each rock-hewn wrinkle,
And today the goat bells' tinkle
Marks a happier time.
Soft the olive groves are gleaming,
War has found surcease,
And as Capri sits a-dreaming
Soft the olive groves are gleaming,
Crowning her with peace.
--Walter Taylor Field