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The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 2 - Jewish poems: Translations by Emma Lazarus
page 33 of 311 (10%)
still almost like a child.

She makes a flying visit to Paris, where she happens to be on the 14th
of July, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastile, and of the
beginning of the republic; she drives to Versailles, "that gorgeous
shell of royalty, where the crowd who celebrate the birth of the
republic wander freely through the halls and avenues, and into the
most sacred rooms of the king. . . . There are ruins on every side in
Paris," she says; "ruins of the Commune, or the Siege, or the
Revolution; it is terrible--it seems as if the city were seared with
fire and blood."

Such was Paris to her then, and she hastens back to her beloved London,
starting from there on the tour through England that has been mapped
out for her. "A Day in Surrey with William Morris," published in
"The Century Magazine," describes her visit to Merton Abbey, the
old Norman monastery, converted into a model factory by the poet-
humanitarian, who himself received her as his guest, conducted her
all over the picturesque building and garden, and explained to her
his views of art and his aims for the people.

She drives through Kent, "where the fields, valleys, and slopes are
garlanded with hops and ablaze with scarlet poppies." Then Canterbury,
Windsor, and Oxford, Stratford, Warwick, the valley of the Wye, Wells,
Exeter, and Salisbury,--cathedral after cathedral. Back to London,
and then north through York, Durham, and Edinburgh, and on the 15th
of September she sails for home. We have merely named the names,
for it is impossible to convey an idea of the delight and importance
of this trip, "a crescendo of enjoyment," as she herself calls it.
Long after, in strange, dark hours of suffering, these pictures of
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