Simples

	     O bella bionda,
	     Sei come l'onda!

	Of cool sweet dew and radiance mild
	The moon a web of silence weaves
	In the still garden where a child
	Gathers the simple salad leaves.

	A moondew stars her hanging hair
	And moonlight kisses her young brow
	And, gathering, she sings an air:
	Fair as the wave is, fair, art thou!

	Be mine, I pray, a waxen ear
	To shield me from her childish croon
	And mine a shielded heart for her
	Who gathers simples of the moon.

			        ca. 1914

Note: The epigraph in Italian means "O fair blonde, / Thou art as the wave!" (cf. l. 8) "[T]his poem describes his daughter Lucia Joyce gathering herbs in a Trieste garden and captures an instant in which Joyce feels a profound love for her." (Fargnoli and Gillespie)

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