Frater Ave Atque Vale
By Alfred Lord Tennyson
Frater Ave atque Vale
Row us out from Desenzano, to your Sirmione row!
So they rowd, and there we landedO venusta Sirmio!
There to me thro all the groves of olive in the summer glow,
There beneath the Roman ruin where the purple flowers grow,
Came that Ave atque Vale of the Poets hopeless woe,
Tenderest of Roman poets nineteen-hundred years ago,
Frater Ave atque Valeas we wanderd to and fro
Gazing at the Lydian laughter of the Garda Lake below
Sweet Catullus's all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio!