The Infinite

        It was always dear to me, this solitary hill,

        and this hedgerow here, that closes out my view,

        from so much of the ultimate horizon.

        But sitting here, and watching here, in thought,

        I create interminable spaces,

        greater than human silences, and deepest

        quiet, where the heart barely fails to terrify.

        When I hear the wind, blowing among these leaves,

        I go on to compare that infinite silence

        with this voice, and I remember the eternal

        and the dead seasons, and the living present,

        and its sound, so that in this immensity

        my thoughts are drowned, and shipwreck seems sweet

        to me in this sea.

(Leopardi)