1“Ho, now!” cried Media, “across the wide waters, for that New Mardi, Vivenza! Let us indeed see, whether she who eludes us elsewhere, he at last found in Vivenza’s vales.”

2“There or nowhere, noble Taji,” said Yoomy.

3“Be not too sanguine, gentle Yoomy,” said Babbalanja.

4“Does Yillah choose rather to bower in the wild wilderness of Vivenza, than in the old vineyards of Porpheero?” said Braid-Beard.

5Sang Yoomy:—

6Her bower is not of the vine,

7But the wild, wild eglantine!

8Not climbing a moldering arch,

9But upheld by the fir-green larch.

10Old ruins she flies:

11To new valleys she hies:—

12Not the hoar, moss-wood,

13Ivied trees each a rood—

14Not in Maramma she dwells,

15Hollow with hermit cells.

16’Tis a new, new isle!

17An infant’s its smile,

18Soft-rocked by the sea.

19Its bloom all in bud;

20No tide at its flood,

21In that fresh-born sea!

22Spring! Spring! where she dwells,

23In her sycamore dells,

24Where Mardi is young and new:

25Its verdure all eyes with dew.

26There, there! in the bright, balmy morns,

27The young deer sprout their horns,

28Deep-tangled in new-branching groves,

29Where the Red-Rover Robin roves,—

30Stooping his crest,

31To his molting breast—

32Rekindling the flambeau there!

33Spring! Spring! where she dwells,

34In her sycamore dells:—

35Where, fulfilling their fates,

36All creatures seek mates—

37The thrush, the doe, and the hare!

38“Thou art most musical, sweet Yoomy,” said Media. “concerning this spring-land Vivenza. But are not the old autumnal valleys of Porpheero more glorious than those of vernal Vivenza? Vivenza shows no trophies of the summer time, but Dominora’s full-blown rose hangs blushing on her garden walls; her autumn groves are glory-dyed.”

39“My lord, autumn soon merges in winter, but the spring has all the seasons before. The full-blown rose is nearer withering than the bud. The faint morn is a blossom: the crimson sunset the flower.”