Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846)

A SUN-BURST on the Bay! Turn and behold!

The restless waves, resplendent in their glory,

Sweep glittering past yon purpled promontory,

Bright as Apollo’s breastplate. Bathed in gold,

Yon bastioned islet gleams. Thin mists are rolled,

Translucent, through each glen. A mantle hoary

Veils those peaked hills shapely as e’er in story

Delphic, or Alpine, or Vesuvian old,

Minstrels have sung. From rock and headland proud

The wild wood spreads its arms around the bay:

The manifold mountain cones, now dark, now bright,

Now seen, now lost, alternate from rich light

To spectral shade; and each dissolving cloud

Reveals new mountains while it floats away.