The Prophecy Of Dante Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDCDEDEFEFGFGHGIJ IKLJLMLMNMNOOOOOOPOP OPOQOQRQRSRSTSTOTOUO UOUOVOVWVXWXYZVA2OA2 OB2OB2C2B2C2OC2OVOVV D2VE2VE2F2E2F2G2F2G2 H2G2H2I2H2I2VI2VJ2VK 2OK2OOOOL2OL2UL2UM2U M2N2I2N2ON2OYOYO2YO2 P2O2P2OPOB2OB2IB2ISI SPSUQ2PQ2VL2VR2VR2UR 2UOUOUOU O OOOOUOUS2US2OS2OIOIO IOOOOVOVT2VT2U2T2V2V U2IVIVIVIB2IB2OB2OVO VVVW2X2VX2VX2VUVOY2O Y2UY2UZ2UZ2IZ2IX2IX2 WX2WOWOA3OA3 B3A3B3OB3OOOOVOVWVWY 2WY2OY2OA3OA3UA3OX2O X2OX2UX2X2X2C3X2C3IC 3ID3ID3OD3OY2OY2VY2V X2VX2OX2O O X2OOOC3OE3IC3IVIVX2V X2OX2OJOF3UG3UX2UX2H 3X2I3J3I3E2B2E2B2OB2 OVOVA2VA2SA2SX2SX2IX 2IOIOIOIA2IY2OOOOX2O VOVVVY2VVX2P2X2OIOIV IVOVOVOVIVIVIVA2VA2O A2OX2OX2X2X2X2OX2OT2 OT2OK3OY2OY2A2Y2A2VO VSVSOSOOOOOOOIX2IB2I B2X2B2X2L3X2M3OL3OIO IVOVA2VA2X2A2X2OX2OX 2OX2Y2X2Y2X2Y2X2IX2I OIOOOOVOV E3 OOOOVOVSVSOSOIOIX2IX 2A3X2A3X2A3X2X2X2OIO IX2IX2OX2OVOVA3VA3A2 A3A2VA2VX2VX2X2X2X2I X2IOIOSOIVIVVVVVVVVV VX2VX2VX2VX2VX2OX2OO OOX2OX2X2X2OIX2ISISI SIA2IA2VA2VX2VX2OX2O VOVX2VX2Y2X2Y2OY2OVO IC3VC3IC3IVIVX2VX2IX 2IX2IX2SX2S ICanto The First | A |
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Once more in Man's frail world which I had left | B |
So long that 'twas forgotten and I feel | C |
The weight of clay again too soon bereft | B |
Of the Immortal Vision which could heal | C |
My earthly sorrows and to God's own skies | D |
Lift me from that deep Gulf without repeal | C |
Where late my ears rung with the damned cries | D |
Of Souls in hopeless bale and from that place | E |
Of lesser torment whence men may arise | D |
Pure from the fire to join the Angelic race | E |
Midst whom my own bright Beatric e blessed | F |
My spirit with her light and to the base | E |
Of the Eternal Triad first last best | F |
Mysterious three sole infinite great God | G |
Soul universal led the mortal guest | F |
Unblasted by the Glory though he trod | G |
From star to star to reach the almighty throne bw | H |
Oh Beatrice whose sweet limbs the sod | G |
So long hath pressed and the cold marble stone | I |
Thou sole pure Seraph of my earliest love | J |
Love so ineffable and so alone | I |
That nought on earth could more my bosom move | K |
And meeting thee in Heaven was but to meet | L |
That without which my Soul like the arkless dove | J |
Had wandered still in search of nor her feet | L |
Relieved her wing till found without thy light | M |
My Paradise had still been incomplete | L |
Since my tenth sun gave summer to my sight | M |
Thou wert my Life the Essence of my thought | N |
Loved ere I knew the name of Love and bright | M |
Still in these dim old eyes now overwrought | N |
With the World's war and years and banishment | O |
And tears for thee by other woes untaught | O |
For mine is not a nature to be bent | O |
By tyrannous faction and the brawling crowd | O |
And though the long long conflict hath been spent | O |
In vain and never more save when the cloud | O |
Which overhangs the Apennine my mind's eye | P |
Pierces to fancy Florence once so proud | O |
Of me can I return though but to die | P |
Unto my native soil they have not yet | O |
Quenched the old exile's spirit stern and high | P |
But the Sun though not overcast must set | O |
And the night cometh I am old in days | Q |
And deeds and contemplation and have met | O |
Destruction face to face in all his ways | Q |
The World hath left me what it found me pure | R |
And if I have not gathered yet its praise | Q |
I sought it not by any baser lure | R |
Man wrongs and Time avenges and my name | S |
May form a monument not all obscure | R |
Though such was not my Ambition's end or aim | S |
To add to the vain glorious list of those | T |
Who dabble in the pettiness of fame | S |
And make men's fickle breath the wind that blows | T |
Their sail and deem it glory to be classed | O |
With conquerors and Virtue's other foes | T |
In bloody chronicles of ages past | O |
I would have had my Florence great and free | U |
Oh Florence Florence unto me thou wast | O |
Like that Jerusalem which the Almighty He | U |
Wept over but thou wouldst not as the bird | O |
Gathers its young I would have gathered thee | U |
Beneath a parent pinion hadst thou heard | O |
My voice but as the adder deaf and fierce | V |
Against the breast that cherished thee was stirred | O |
Thy venom and my state thou didst amerce | V |
And doom this body forfeit to the fire | W |
Alas how bitter is his country's curse | V |
To him who for that country would expire | X |
But did not merit to expire by her | W |
And loves her loves her even in her ire | X |
The day may come when she will cease to err | Y |
The day may come she would be proud to have | Z |
The dust she dooms to scatter and transfer bx | V |
Of him whom she denied a home the grave | A2 |
But this shall not be granted let my dust | O |
Lie where it falls nor shall the soil which gave | A2 |
Me breath but in her sudden fury thrust | O |
Me forth to breathe elsewhere so reassume | B2 |
My indignant bones because her angry gust | O |
Forsooth is over and repealed her doom | B2 |
No she denied me what was mine my roof | C2 |
And shall not have what is not hers my tomb | B2 |
Too long her arm d wrath hath kept aloof | C2 |
The breast which would have bled for her the heart | O |
That beat the mind that was temptation proof | C2 |
The man who fought toiled travelled and each part | O |
Of a true citizen fulfilled and saw | V |
For his reward the Guelf's ascendant art | O |
Pass his destruction even into a law | V |
These things are not made for forgetfulness | V |
Florence shall be forgotten first too raw | D2 |
The wound too deep the wrong and the distress | V |
Of such endurance too prolonged to make | E2 |
My pardon greater her injustice less | V |
Though late repented yet yet for her sake | E2 |
I feel some fonder yearnings and for thine | F2 |
My own Beatric I would hardly take | E2 |
Vengeance upon the land which once was mine | F2 |
And still is hallowed by thy dust's return | G2 |
Which would protect the murderess like a shrine | F2 |
And save ten thousand foes by thy sole urn | G2 |
Though like old Marius from Minturn 's marsh | H2 |
And Carthage ruins my lone breast may burn | G2 |
At times with evil feelings hot and harsh | H2 |
And sometimes the last pangs of a vile foe | I2 |
Writhe in a dream before me and o'erarch | H2 |
My brow with hopes of triumph let them go | I2 |
Such are the last infirmities of those | V |
Who long have suffered more than mortal woe | I2 |
And yet being mortal still have no repose | V |
But on the pillow of Revenge Revenge | J2 |
Who sleeps to dream of blood and waking glows | V |
With the oft baffled slakeless thirst of change | K2 |
When we shall mount again and they that trod | O |
Be trampled on while Death and At range | K2 |
O'er humbled heads and severed necks Great God | O |
Take these thoughts from me to thy hands I yield | O |
My many wrongs and thine Almighty rod | O |
Will fall on those who smote me be my Shield | O |
As thou hast been in peril and in pain | L2 |
In turbulent cities and the tented field | O |
In toil and many troubles borne in vain | L2 |
For Florence I appeal from her to Thee | U |
Thee whom I late saw in thy loftiest reign | L2 |
Even in that glorious Vision which to see | U |
And live was never granted until now | M2 |
And yet thou hast permitted this to me | U |
Alas with what a weight upon my brow | M2 |
The sense of earth and earthly things come back | N2 |
Corrosive passions feelings dull and low | I2 |
The heart's quick throb upon the mental rack | N2 |
Long day and dreary night the retrospect | O |
Of half a century bloody and black | N2 |
And the frail few years I may yet expect | O |
Hoary and hopeless but less hard to bear | Y |
For I have been too long and deeply wrecked | O |
On the lone rock of desolate Despair | Y |
To lift my eyes more to the passing sail | O2 |
Which shuns that reef so horrible and bare | Y |
Nor raise my voice for who would heed my wail | O2 |
I am not of this people nor this age | P2 |
And yet my harpings will unfold a tale | O2 |
Which shall preserve these times when not a page | P2 |
Of their perturb d annals could attract | O |
An eye to gaze upon their civil rage by | P |
Did not my verse embalm full many an act | O |
Worthless as they who wrought it 'tis the doom | B2 |
Of spirits of my order to be racked | O |
In life to wear their hearts out and consume | B2 |
Their days in endless strife and die alone | I |
Then future thousands crowd around their tomb | B2 |
And pilgrims come from climes where they have known | I |
The name of him who now is but a name | S |
And wasting homage o'er the sullen stone | I |
Spread his by him unheard unheeded fame | S |
And mine at least hath cost me dear to die | P |
Is nothing but to wither thus to tame | S |
My mind down from its own infinity | U |
To live in narrow ways with little men | Q2 |
A common sight to every common eye | P |
A wanderer while even wolves can find a den | Q2 |
Ripped from all kindred from all home all things | V |
That make communion sweet and soften pain | L2 |
To feel me in the solitude of kings | V |
Without the power that makes them bear a crown | R2 |
To envy every dove his nest and wings | V |
Which waft him where the Apennine looks down | R2 |
On Arno till he perches it may be | U |
Within my all inexorable town | R2 |
Where yet my boys are and that fatal She | U |
Their mother the cold partner who hath brought | O |
Destruction for a dowry this to see | U |
And feel and know without repair hath taught | O |
A bitter lesson but it leaves me free | U |
I have not vilely found nor basely sought | O |
They made an Exile not a Slave of me | U |
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- | |
Canto The Second | O |
- | |
The Spirit of the fervent days of Old | O |
When words were things that came to pass and Thought | O |
Flashed o'er the future bidding men behold | O |
Their children's children's doom already brought | O |
Forth from the abyss of Time which is to be | U |
The Chaos of events where lie half wrought | O |
Shapes that must undergo mortality | U |
What the great Seers of Israel wore within | S2 |
That Spirit was on them and is on me | U |
And if Cassandra like amidst the din | S2 |
Of conflict none will hear or hearing heed | O |
This voice from out the Wilderness the sin | S2 |
Be theirs and my own feelings be my meed | O |
The only guerdon I have ever known | I |
Hast thou not bled and hast thou still to bleed | O |
Italia Ah to me such things foreshown | I |
With dim sepulchral light bid me forget | O |
In thine irreparable wrongs my own | I |
We can have but one Country and even yet | O |
Thou'rt mine my bones shall be within thy breast | O |
My Soul within thy language which once set | O |
With our old Roman sway in the wide West | O |
But I will make another tongue arise | V |
As lofty and more sweet in which expressed | O |
The hero's ardour or the lover's sighs | V |
Shall find alike such sounds for every theme | T2 |
That every word as brilliant as thy skies | V |
Shall realise a Poet's proudest dream | T2 |
And make thee Europe's Nightingale of Song | U2 |
So that all present speech to thine shall seem | T2 |
The note of meaner birds and every tongue | V2 |
Confess its barbarism when compared with thine bz | V |
This shalt thou owe to him thou didst so wrong | U2 |
Thy Tuscan bard the banished Ghibelline | I |
Woe woe the veil of coming centuries | V |
Is rent a thousand years which yet supine | I |
Lie like the ocean waves ere winds arise | V |
Heaving in dark and sullen undulation | I |
Float from Eternity into these eyes | V |
The storms yet sleep the clouds still keep their station | I |
The unborn Earthquake yet is in the womb | B2 |
The bloody Chaos yet expects Creation | I |
But all things are disposing for thy doom | B2 |
The Elements await but for the Word | O |
Let there be darkness and thou grow'st a tomb | B2 |
Yes thou so beautiful shalt feel the sword | O |
Thou Italy so fair that Paradise | V |
Revived in thee blooms forth to man restored | O |
Ah must the sons of Adam lose it twice | V |
Thou Italy whose ever golden fields | V |
Ploughed by the sunbeams solely would suffice | V |
For the world's granary thou whose sky Heaven gilds ca | W2 |
With brighter stars and robes with deeper blue | X2 |
Thou in whose pleasant places Summer builds | V |
Her palace in whose cradle Empire grew | X2 |
And formed the Eternal City's ornaments | V |
From spoils of Kings whom freemen overthrew | X2 |
Birthplace of heroes sanctuary of Saints | V |
Where earthly first then heavenly glory made cb | U |
Her home thou all which fondest Fancy paints | V |
And finds her prior vision but portrayed | O |
In feeble colours when the eye from the Alp | Y2 |
Of horrid snow and rock and shaggy shade | O |
Of desert loving pine whose emerald scalp | Y2 |
Nods to the storm dilates and dotes o'er thee | U |
And wistfully implores as 'twere for help | Y2 |
To see thy sunny fields my Italy | U |
Nearer and nearer yet and dearer still | Z2 |
The more approached and dearest were they free | U |
Thou Thou must wither to each tyrant's will | Z2 |
The Goth hath been the German Frank and Hun | I |
Are yet to come and on the imperial hill | Z2 |
Ruin already proud of the deeds done | I |
By the old barbarians there awaits the new | X2 |
Throned on the Palatine while lost and won | I |
Rome at her feet lies bleeding and the hue | X2 |
Of human sacrifice and Roman slaughter | W |
Troubles the clotted air of late so blue | X2 |
And deepens into red the saffron water | W |
Of Tiber thick with dead the helpless priest | O |
And still more helpless nor less holy daughter | W |
Vowed to their God have shrieking fled and ceased | O |
Their ministry the nations take their prey | A3 |
Iberian Almain Lombard and the beast | O |
And bird wolf vulture more humane than they | A3 |
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Are these but gorge the flesh and lap the gore | B3 |
Of the departed and then go their way | A3 |
But those the human savages explore | B3 |
All paths of torture and insatiate yet | O |
With Ugolino hunger prowl for more | B3 |
Nine moons shall rise o'er scenes like this and set | O |
The chiefless army of the dead which late | O |
Beneath the traitor Prince's banner met | O |
Hath left its leader's ashes at the gate | O |
Had but the royal Rebel lived perchance | V |
Thou hadst been spared but his involved thy fate | O |
Oh Rome the Spoiler or the spoil of France | V |
From Brennus to the Bourbon never never | W |
Shall foreign standard to thy walls advance | V |
But Tiber shall become a mournful river | W |
Oh when the strangers pass the Alps and Po | Y2 |
Crush them ye Rocks Floods whelm them and for ever | W |
Why sleep the idle Avalanches so | Y2 |
To topple on the lonely pilgrim's head | O |
Why doth Eridanus but overflow | Y2 |
The peasant's harvest from his turbid bed | O |
Were not each barbarous horde a nobler prey | A3 |
Over Cambyses' host the desert spread | O |
Her sandy ocean and the Sea waves' sway | A3 |
Rolled over Pharaoh and his thousands why cc | U |
Mountains and waters do ye not as they | A3 |
And you ye Men Romans who dare not die | O |
Sons of the conquerors who overthrew | X2 |
Those who overthrew proud Xerxes where yet lie | O |
The dead whose tomb Oblivion never knew | X2 |
Are the Alps weaker than Thermopyl | O |
Their passes more alluring to the view | X2 |
Of an invader is it they or ye | U |
That to each host the mountain gate unbar | X2 |
And leave the march in peace the passage free | X2 |
Why Nature's self detains the Victor's car | X2 |
And makes your land impregnable if earth | C3 |
Could be so but alone she will not war | X2 |
Yet aids the warrior worthy of his birth | C3 |
In a soil where the mothers bring forth men | I |
Not so with those whose souls are little worth | C3 |
For them no fortress can avail the den | I |
Of the poor reptile which preserves its sting | D3 |
Is more secure than walls of adamant when | I |
The hearts of those within are quivering | D3 |
Are ye not brave Yes yet the Ausonian soil | O |
Hath hearts and hands and arms and hosts to bring | D3 |
Against Oppression but how vain the toil | O |
While still Division sows the seeds of woe | Y2 |
And weakness till the Stranger reaps the spoil | O |
Oh my own beauteous land so long laid low | Y2 |
So long the grave of thy own children's hopes | V |
When there is but required a single blow | Y2 |
To break the chain yet yet the Avenger stops | V |
And Doubt and Discord step 'twixt thine and thee | X2 |
And join their strength to that which with thee copes | V |
What is there wanting then to set thee free | X2 |
And show thy beauty in its fullest light | O |
To make the Alps impassable and we | X2 |
Her Sons may do this with one deed Unite | O |
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Canto The Third | O |
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From out the mass of never dying ill cd | X2 |
The Plague the Prince the Stranger and the Sword | O |
Vials of wrath but emptied to refill | O |
And flow again I cannot all record | O |
That crowds on my prophetic eye the Earth | C3 |
And Ocean written o'er would not afford | O |
Space for the annal yet it shall go forth | E3 |
Yes all though not by human pen is graven | I |
There where the farthest suns and stars have birth | C3 |
Spread like a banner at the gate of Heaven | I |
The bloody scroll of our millennial wrongs | V |
Waves and the echo of our groans is driven | I |
Athwart the sound of archangelic songs | V |
And Italy the martyred nation's gore | X2 |
Will not in vain arise to where belongs ce | V |
Omnipotence and Mercy evermore | X2 |
Like to a harpstring stricken by the wind | O |
The sound of her lament shall rising o'er | X2 |
The Seraph voices touch the Almighty Mind | O |
Meantime I humblest of thy sons and of | J |
Earth's dust by immortality refined | O |
To Sense and Suffering though the vain may scoff | F3 |
And tyrants threat and meeker victims bow | U |
Before the storm because its breath is rough | G3 |
To thee my Country whom before as now | U |
I loved and love devote the mournful lyre | X2 |
And melancholy gift high Powers allow | U |
To read the future and if now my fire | X2 |
Is not as once it shone o'er thee forgive | H3 |
I but foretell thy fortunes then expire | X2 |
Think not that I would look on them and live | I3 |
A Spirit forces me to see and speak | J3 |
And for my guerdon grants not to survive | I3 |
My Heart shall be poured over thee and break | E2 |
Yet for a moment ere I must resume | B2 |
Thy sable web of Sorrow let me take | E2 |
Over the gleams that flash athwart thy gloom | B2 |
A softer glimpse some stars shine through thy night | O |
And many meteors and above thy tomb | B2 |
Leans sculptured Beauty which Death cannot blight | O |
And from thine ashes boundless Spirits rise | V |
To give thee honour and the earth delight | O |
Thy soil shall still be pregnant with the wise | V |
The gay the learned the generous and the brave | A2 |
Native to thee as Summer to thy skies | V |
Conquerors on foreign shores and the far wave | A2 |
Discoverers of new worlds which take their name | S |
For thee alone they have no arm to save | A2 |
And all thy recompense is in their fame | S |
A noble one to them but not to thee | X2 |
Shall they be glorious and thou still the same | S |
Oh more than these illustrious far shall be | X2 |
The Being and even yet he may be born | I |
The mortal Saviour who shall set thee free | X2 |
And see thy diadem so changed and worn | I |
By fresh barbarians on thy brow replaced | O |
And the sweet Sun replenishing thy morn | I |
Thy moral morn too long with clouds defaced | O |
And noxious vapours from Avernus risen | I |
Such as all they must breathe who are debased | O |
By Servitude and have the mind in prison | I |
Yet through this centuried eclipse of woe cf | A2 |
Some voices shall be heard and Earth shall listen | I |
Poets shall follow in the path I show | Y2 |
And make it broader the same brilliant sky | O |
Which cheers the birds to song shall bid them glow cg | O |
And raise their notes as natural and high | O |
Tuneful shall be their numbers they shall sing | O |
Many of Love and some of Liberty | X2 |
But few shall soar upon that Eagle's wing | O |
And look in the Sun's face with Eagle's gaze | V |
All free and fearless as the feathered King | O |
But fly more near the earth how many a phrase | V |
Sublime shall lavished be on some small prince | V |
In all the prodigality of Praise | V |
And language eloquently false evince ch | Y2 |
The harlotry of Genius which like Beauty ci | V |
Too oft forgets its own self reverence | V |
And looks on prostitution as a duty | X2 |
He who once enters in a Tyrant's hall cj | P2 |
As guest is slave his thoughts become a booty | X2 |
And the first day which sees the chain enthral | O |
A captive sees his half of Manhood gone | I |
The Soul's emasculation saddens all | O |
His spirit thus the Bard too near the throne | I |
Quails from his inspiration bound to please | V |
How servile is the task to please alone | I |
To smooth the verse to suit his Sovereign's ease | V |
And royal leisure nor too much prolong | O |
Aught save his eulogy and find and seize | V |
Or force or forge fit argument of Song | O |
Thus trammelled thus condemned to Flattery's trebles | V |
He toils through all still trembling to be wrong | O |
For fear some noble thoughts like heavenly rebels | V |
Should rise up in high treason to his brain | I |
He sings as the Athenian spoke with pebbles | V |
In's mouth lest Truth should stammer through his strain | I |
But out of the long file of sonneteers | V |
There shall be some who will not sing in vain | I |
And he their Prince shall rank among my peers | V |
And Love shall be his torment but his grief | A2 |
Shall make an immortality of tears | V |
And Italy shall hail him as the Chief | A2 |
Of Poet lovers and his higher song | O |
Of Freedom wreathe him with as green a leaf | A2 |
But in a farther age shall rise along | O |
The banks of Po two greater still than he | X2 |
The World which smiled on him shall do them wrong | O |
Till they are ashes and repose with me | X2 |
The first will make an epoch with his lyre | X2 |
And fill the earth with feats of Chivalry | X2 |
His Fancy like a rainbow and his Fire | X2 |
Like that of Heaven immortal and his Thought | O |
Borne onward with a wing that cannot tire | X2 |
Pleasure shall like a butterfly new caught | O |
Flutter her lovely pinions o'er his theme | T2 |
And Art itself seem into Nature wrought | O |
By the transparency of his bright dream | T2 |
The second of a tenderer sadder mood | O |
Shall pour his soul out o'er Jerusalem | K3 |
He too shall sing of Arms and Christian blood | O |
Shed where Christ bled for man and his high harp | Y2 |
Shall by the willow over Jordan's flood | O |
Revive a song of Sion and the sharp | Y2 |
Conflict and final triumph of the brave | A2 |
And pious and the strife of Hell to warp | Y2 |
Their hearts from their great purpose until wave | A2 |
The red cross banners where the first red Cross | V |
Was crimsoned from His veins who died to save ck | O |
Shall be his sacred argument the loss | V |
Of years of favour freedom even of fame | S |
Contested for a time while the smooth gloss | V |
Of Courts would slide o'er his forgotten name | S |
And call Captivity a kindness meant | O |
To shield him from insanity or shame | S |
Such shall be his meek guerdon who was sent | O |
To be Christ's Laureate they reward him well | O |
Florence dooms me but death or banishment | O |
Ferrara him a pittance and a cell | O |
Harder to bear and less deserved for I | O |
Had stung the factions which I strove to quell | O |
But this meek man who with a lover's eye | O |
Will look on Earth and Heaven and who will deign | I |
To embalm with his celestial flattery | X2 |
As poor a thing as e'er was spawned to reign | I |
What will he do to merit such a doom | B2 |
Perhaps he'll love and is not Love in vain | I |
Torture enough without a living tomb | B2 |
Yet it will be so he and his compeer | X2 |
The Bard of Chivalry will both consume | B2 |
In penury and pain too many a year | X2 |
And dying in despondency bequeath | L3 |
To the kind World which scarce will yield a tear | X2 |
A heritage enriching all who breathe | M3 |
With the wealth of a genuine Poet's soul | O |
And to their country a redoubled wreath | L3 |
Unmatched by time not Hellas can unroll | O |
Through her Olympiads two such names though one | I |
Of hers be mighty and is this the whole | O |
Of such men's destiny beneath the Sun | I |
Must all the finer thoughts the thrilling sense | V |
The electric blood with which their arteries run cl | O |
Their body's self turned soul with the intense | V |
Feeling of that which is and fancy of | A2 |
That which should be to such a recompense | V |
Conduct shall their bright plumage on the rough | A2 |
Storm be still scattered Yes and it must be | X2 |
For formed of far too penetrable stuff | A2 |
These birds of Paradise but long to flee | X2 |
Back to their native mansion soon they find | O |
Earth's mist with their pure pinions not agree | X2 |
And die or are degraded for the mind | O |
Succumbs to long infection and despair | X2 |
And vulture Passions flying close behind | O |
Await the moment to assail and tear | X2 |
And when at length the wing d wanderers stoop | Y2 |
Then is the Prey birds' triumph then they share | X2 |
The spoil o'erpowered at length by one fell swoop | Y2 |
Yet some have been untouched who learned to bear | X2 |
Some whom no Power could ever force to droop | Y2 |
Who could resist themselves even hardest care | X2 |
And task most hopeless but some such have been | I |
And if my name amongst the number were | X2 |
That Destiny austere and yet serene | I |
Were prouder than more dazzling fame unblessed | O |
The Alp's snow summit nearer heaven is seen | I |
Than the Volcano's fierce eruptive crest | O |
Whose splendour from the black abyss is flung | O |
While the scorched mountain from whose burning breast | O |
A temporary torturing flame is wrung | O |
Shines for a night of terror then repels | V |
Its fire back to the Hell from whence it sprung | O |
The Hell which in its entrails ever dwells | V |
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Canto The Fourth | E3 |
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Many are Poets who have never penned | O |
Their inspiration and perchance the best | O |
They felt and loved and died but would not lend | O |
Their thoughts to meaner beings they compressed | O |
The God within them and rejoined the stars | V |
Unlaurelled upon earth but far more blessed | O |
Than those who are degraded by the jars | V |
Of Passion and their frailties linked to fame | S |
Conquerors of high renown but full of scars | V |
Many are Poets but without the name | S |
For what is Poesy but to create | O |
From overfeeling Good or Ill and aim | S |
At an external life beyond our fate | O |
And be the new Prometheus of new men | I |
Bestowing fire from Heaven and then too late | O |
Finding the pleasure given repaid with pain | I |
And vultures to the heart of the bestower | X2 |
Who having lavished his high gift in vain | I |
Lies to his lone rock by the sea shore | X2 |
So be it we can bear But thus all they | A3 |
Whose Intellect is an o'ermastering Power | X2 |
Which still recoils from its encumbering clay | A3 |
Or lightens it to spirit whatsoe'er | X2 |
The form which their creations may essay | A3 |
Are bards the kindled Marble's bust may wear | X2 |
More poesy upon its speaking brow | X2 |
Than aught less than the Homeric page may bear | X2 |
One noble stroke with a whole life may glow | O |
Or deify the canvass till it shine | I |
With beauty so surpassing all below | O |
That they who kneel to Idols so divine | I |
Break no commandment for high Heaven is there | X2 |
Transfused transfigurated and the line | I |
Of Poesy which peoples but the air | X2 |
With Thought and Beings of our thought reflected | O |
Can do no more then let the artist share | X2 |
The palm he shares the peril and dejected | O |
Faints o'er the labour unapproved Alas | V |
Despair and Genius are too oft connected | O |
Within the ages which before me pass | V |
Art shall resume and equal even the sway | A3 |
Which with Apelles and old Phidias | V |
She held in Hellas' unforgotten day | A3 |
Ye shall be taught by Ruin to revive | A2 |
The Grecian forms at least from their decay | A3 |
And Roman souls at last again shall live | A2 |
In Roman works wrought by Italian hands | V |
And temples loftier than the old temples give | A2 |
New wonders to the World and while still stands | V |
The austere Pantheon into heaven shall soar | X2 |
A Dome its image while the base expands | V |
Into a fane surpassing all before | X2 |
Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in ne'er | X2 |
Such sight hath been unfolded by a door | X2 |
As this to which all nations shall repair | X2 |
And lay their sins at this huge gate of Heaven | I |
And the bold Architect unto whose care | X2 |
The daring charge to raise it shall be given | I |
Whom all Arts shall acknowledge as their Lord | O |
Whether into the marble chaos driven | I |
His chisel bid the Hebrew at whose word | O |
Israel left Egypt stop the waves in stone cm | S |
Or hues of Hell be by his pencil poured | O |
Over the damned before the Judgement throne | I |
Such as I saw them such as all shall see | V |
Or fanes be built of grandeur yet unknown | I |
The Stream of his great thoughts shall spring from me | V |
The Ghibelline who traversed the three realms | V |
Which form the Empire of Eternity | V |
Amidst the clash of swords and clang of helms | V |
The age which I anticipate no less | V |
Shall be the Age of Beauty and while whelms | V |
Calamity the nations with distress | V |
The Genius of my Country shall arise | V |
A Cedar towering o'er the Wilderness | V |
Lovely in all its branches to all eyes | V |
Fragrant as fair and recognised afar | X2 |
Wafting its native incense through the skies | V |
Sovereigns shall pause amidst their sport of war | X2 |
Weaned for an hour from blood to turn and gaze | V |
On canvass or on stone and they who mar | X2 |
All beauty upon earth compelled to praise | V |
Shall feel the power of that which they destroy | X2 |
And Art's mistaken gratitude shall raise | V |
To tyrants who but take her for a toy | X2 |
Emblems and monuments and prostitute | O |
Her charms to Pontiffs proud who but employ | X2 |
The man of Genius as the meanest brute | O |
To bear a burthen and to serve a need | O |
To sell his labours and his soul to boot | O |
Who toils for nations may be poor indeed | O |
But free who sweats for Monarchs is no more | X2 |
Than the gilt Chamberlain who clothed and feed | O |
Stands sleek and slavish bowing at his door | X2 |
Oh Power that rulest and inspirest how | X2 |
Is it that they on earth whose earthly power | X2 |
Is likest thine in heaven in outward show | O |
Least like to thee in attributes divine | I |
Tread on the universal necks that bow | X2 |
And then assure us that their rights are thine | I |
And how is it that they the Sons of Fame | S |
Whose inspiration seems to them to shine | I |
From high they whom the nations oftest name | S |
Must pass their days in penury or pain | I |
Or step to grandeur through the paths of shame | S |
And wear a deeper brand and gaudier chain | I |
Or if their Destiny be born aloof | A2 |
From lowliness or tempted thence in vain | I |
In their own souls sustain a harder proof | A2 |
The inner war of Passions deep and fierce | V |
Florence when thy harsh sentence razed my roof | A2 |
I loved thee but the vengeance of my verse | V |
The hate of injuries which every year | X2 |
Makes greater and accumulates my curse | V |
Shall live outliving all thou holdest dear | X2 |
Thy pride thy wealth thy freedom and even that | O |
The most infernal of all evils here | X2 |
The sway of petty tyrants in a state | O |
For such sway is not limited to Kings | V |
And Demagogues yield to them but in date | O |
As swept off sooner in all deadly things | V |
Which make men hate themselves and one another | X2 |
In discord cowardice cruelty all that springs | V |
From Death the Sin born's incest with his mother | X2 |
In rank oppression in its rudest shape | Y2 |
The faction Chief is but the Sultan's brother | X2 |
And the worst Despot's far less human ape | Y2 |
Florence when this lone spirit which so long | O |
Yearned as the captive toiling at escape | Y2 |
To fly back to thee in despite of wrong | O |
An exile saddest of all prisoners | V |
Who has the whole world for a dungeon strong | O |
Seas mountains and the horizon's verge for bars cn | I |
Which shut him from the sole small spot of earth | C3 |
Where whatsoe'er his fate he still were hers | V |
His Country's and might die where he had birth | C3 |
Florence when this lone Spirit shall return | I |
To kindred Spirits thou wilt feel my worth | C3 |
And seek to honour with an empty urn | I |
The ashes thou shalt ne'er obtain Alas | V |
What have I done to thee my People Stern | I |
Are all thy dealings but in this they pass | V |
The limits of Man's common malice for | X2 |
All that a citizen could be I was | V |
Raised by thy will all thine in peace or war | X2 |
And for this thou hast warred with me 'Tis done | I |
I may not overleap the eternal bar | X2 |
Built up between us and will die alone | I |
Beholding with the dark eye of a Seer | X2 |
The evil days to gifted souls foreshown | I |
Foretelling them to those who will not hear | X2 |
As in the old time till the hour be come | S |
When Truth shall strike their eyes through many a tear | X2 |
And make them own the Prophet in his tomb | S |
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Ravenna | I |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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