This to Hale in the West, from the Dean beneath his Cathedral.
Greeting and health, and many New–year and Christmas blessings;
Also, apologies many, for letting the year pass by me
All unmindful of time, no token of gratitude rendered.
‘Twas not ingratitude, ’twas not your war, nor the pressure of head work,
But the trick of making the work of to–day the plan for to–morrow.
Now however I’m fairly afloat, and shall finish my letter.
First, concerning things here: and then about you and your matters.
Off on Candlemas day I started with one companion
Bound for the City Eternal. To you I need not set forth
Those four weeks of pleasure and interest wrought to the highest:
Need not say, how duly we searched the crumbling temples,
How we walked and basked in the glorious wide Campagna,
Treading its carpet of flowers, and breathing its scented breezes:
But I may say, that we also searched the Vatican Codex,
Thanks to a friend at Court, and licence from Antonelli.
Sweetest joys must have an end: our four weeks finished,
I by Cassian way, Bolsena and Acqua–pendente,
Took the road to Siena, and, getting glimpses of Florence,
Skirted the coast to Spezia’s glorious bay, and by Genoa
Over the Mont Cenis, and so by railway to Paris.
After that, the summer ran on, with duty and leisure,
Quiet and uneventful: save that a medical congress
Gathered from all the land, in our ancient city assembled;
Voted themselves infallible, cursed the Homoeopathics,
Lectured, and ate and drank, and at the Deanery soir
(Henry Alford)
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Based on Topics: Time Poems, War & Peace Poems, Friendship Poems, Flowers Poems, Summer Poems, Work & Career Poems, Eternity Poems, Cities Poems, Pleasure Poems, Medicine & Medical Poems, Blessings PoemsBased on Keywords: congress, basked, siena, uneventful, lectured, candlemas, codex, cenis, antonelli, deanery