Sordello: Book The Fifth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKK L MMNNOOPPQQRRSSTTUUVV WWDDDDWWDDXXYZA2A2B2 B2C2C2D2D2E2E2WWF2F2 DDG2G2D DDDH2H2D DUUI2I2WWDDDDWWWWUUJ 2J2DDDDWWDDMMK2K2L2M 2UUK2K2DDDDUUN2N2DDD DO2O2WWUUDDUUP2P2VVU UDDDDUUK2K2Q2M2R2R2D DDDDDK2K2DDDDK2K2UUS 2S2UUUUT2T2K2UUUDDU2 U2U2U2UK2UUDDU2U2V2V 2UUDDDDK2K2UUWWU2U2D DDDDDW2W2WWC2C2DDC2C 2DDWWX2X2DDDDUUDDDDU UK2K2DDDDW2W2Y2Y2Z2Z 2UUUK2A3 UUWWDDUUDDUUK2K2K2K2 K2K2C2C2DDDDWWWWUUUU UUDDW K2K2U2U2MMDDDDDDMMU2 U2S2S2DDK2K2 W2W2DDDDDDU2U2DDK2K2 B3B3DDUUDDDDB3B3DDMM DDK2K2UUUUK2 C3C3UUB3B3K2K2UUDDUU Z2Z2MMDDDD U2U2DDK2UD3D3K2K2DDU UV2V2P2P2E3E3D DDUUWWK2 B3B3UUU2U2DDMMDDDDD DUUDDW2W2K2K2MMDDUUD DDDUUUUDDDDU2U2DDB3B 3DDDDDDDDMMK2K2D K2K2DDU2U2DDK2K2DDK2 DDDU2U2DDK2K2DDF3F3D DK2K2DDU2U2K2K2DDDDG 3S2UUDDS2S2B3B3DDDDD DK2K2DDDDDDMMUUDDK2K 2W2W2DDU2U2DDK2K2DDD DDDDDUUDDC2C2UUUUDDD DDDU2U2DDU2U2UUDDDDM MB3B3DDDDK2K2DDDDUUD DC2C2DDDDUUK2K2UK2 UK2K2DDU2U2K2K2DDUUD DW2W2DDDDUUDDDDMMDDU UK2K2DDA3A3V2V2DDB3B 3D DUUC2C2DDUUDDH2H2DDA 3U2DDDDDDK2K2DDDDS2S 2UA3A3UU2U2K2K2DDDDD DK2K2DDH3H3U2U2D DDI3I3DDUUK2K2A3A3K2 K2DDA3A3UUK2 C2C2W2W2UUK2K2A3A3DD DDMMUUUUK2K2U2U2DDDD J3J3C2C2DDK2K2DDDDDD DDDDA3A3U2U2U2U2UUW2 W2DDMMDDDDUUDDK2K2DD K2K2B3B3DD DDDDJ3J3DDDDDDH3H3DK 2MMDM DUUDD DDDDDB3B3UUDDH3H3DDU UDDUUUUDDW2W2DDK2K2K 2K2DDDDDDDDDDK2K3DDB 3B3U2U2K2K2UUU2U2H3H 3U2U2B3B3UUK2K2UUDDD DDDUUDDDDW2W2DDDDMMD DDDD DDMMDDDDK2K2DDU2U2DD DDDDK2K2DDU2U2U2U2DD DDDDDDDDB3B3DDDDUUDD DDB3B3H3H3DDW2W2H3H3 K2K2U2U2UUDDUUH3H3U2 K2DDK2D K2DDDDDDUUDDU2U2B3B3 DD

Is it the same Sordello in the dusk	A
As at the dawn merely a perished husk	A
Now that arose a power fit to build	B
Up Rome again The proud conception chilled	B
So soon Ay watch that latest dream of thine	C
A Rome indebted to no Palatine	C
Drop arch by arch Sordello Art possessed	D
Of thy wish now rewarded for thy quest	D
To day among Ferrara's squalid sons	E
Are this and this and this the shining ones	E
Meet for the Shining City Sooth to say	F
Your favoured tenantry pursue their way	F
After a fashion This companion slips	G
On the smooth causey t' other blinkard trips	G
At his mooned sandal Leave to lead the brawls	H
Here i' the atria No friend He that sprawls	H
On aught but a stibadium what his dues	I
Who puts the lustral vase to such an use	J
Oh huddle up the day's disasters March	K
Ye runagates and drop thou arch by arch	K
Rome	L
	-
	-
Yet before they quite disband a whim	M
Study mere shelter now for him and him	M
Nay even the worst just house them Any cave	N
Suffices throw out earth A loophole Brave	N
They ask to feel the sun shine see the grass	O
Grow hear the larks sing Dead art thou alas	O
And I am dead But here's our son excels	P
At hurdle weaving any Scythian fells	P
Oak and devises rafters dreams and shapes	Q
His dream into a door post just escapes	Q
The mystery of hinges Lie we both	R
Perdue another age The goodly growth	R
Of brick and stone Our building pelt was rough	S
But that descendant's garb suits well enough	S
A portico contriver Speed the years	T
What 's time to us At last a city rears	T
Itself nay enter what's the grave to us	U
Lo our forlorn acquaintance carry thus	U
The head Successively sewer forum cirque	V
Last age an aqueduct was counted work	V
But now they tire the artificer upon	W
Blank alabaster black obsidion	W
Careful Jove's face be duly fulgurant	D
And mother Venus' kiss creased nipples pant	D
Back into pristine pulpiness ere fixed	D
Above the baths What difference betwixt	D
This Rome and ours resemblance what between	W
That scurvy dumb show and this pageant sheen	W
These Romans and our rabble Use thy wit	D
The work marched step by step a workman fit	D
Took each nor too fit to one task one time	X
No leaping o'er the petty to the prime	X
When just the substituting osier lithe	Y
For brittle bulrush sound wood for soft withe	Z
To further loam and roughcast work a stage	A2
Exacts an architect exacts an age	A2
No tables of the Mauritanian tree	B2
For men whose maple log 's their luxury	B2
That way was Rome built Better say you merge	C2
At once all workmen in the demiurge	C2
All epochs in a lifetime every task	D2
In one So should the sudden city bask	D2
I' the day while those we 'd feast there want the knack	E2
Of keeping fresh chalked gowns from speck and brack	E2
Distinguish not rare peacock from vile swan	W
Nor Mareotic juice from C cuban	W
Enough of Rome 'T was happy to conceive	F2
Rome on a sudden nor shall fate bereave	F2
Me of that credit for the rest her spite	D
Is an old story serves my folly right	D
By adding yet another to the dull	G2
List of abortions things proved beautiful	G2
Could they be done Sordello cannot do	D
	-
	-
He sat upon the terrace plucked and threw	D
The powdery aloe cusps away saw shift	D
Rome's walls and drop arch after arch and drift	D
Mist like afar those pillars of all stripe	H2
Mounds of all majesty Thou archetype	H2
Last of my dreams and loveliest depart	D
	-
	-
And then a low voice wound into his heart	D
Sordello low as some old Pythoness	U
Conceding to a Lydian King's distress	U
The cause of his long error one mistake	I2
Of her past oracle Sordello wake	I2
God has conceded two sights to a man	W
One of men's whole work time's completed plan	W
The other of the minute's work man's first	D
Step to the plan's completeness what's dispersed	D
Save hope of that supreme step which descried	D
Earliest was meant still to remain untried	D
Only to give you heart to take your own	W
Step and there stay leaving the rest alone	W
Where is the vanity Why count as one	W
The first step with the last step What is gone	W
Except Rome's a ry magnificence	U
That last step you 'd take first an evidence	U
You were God be man now Let those glances fall	J2
The basis the beginning step of all	J2
Which proves you just a man is that gone too	D
Pity to disconcert one versed as you	D
In fate's ill nature but its full extent	D
Eludes Sordello even the veil rent	D
Read the black writing that collective man	W
Outstrips the individual Who began	W
The acknowledged greatnesses Ay your own art	D
Shall serve us put the poet's mimes apart	D
Close with the poet's self and lo a dim	M
Yet too plain form divides itself from him	M
Alcamo's song enmeshes the lulled Isle	K2
Woven into the echoes left erewhile	K2
By Nina one soft web of song no more	L2
Turning his name then flower like o'er and o'er	M2
An elder poet in the younger's place	U
Nina's the strength but Alcamo's the grace	U
Each neutralizes each then Search your fill	K2
You get no whole and perfect Poet still	K2
New Ninas Alcamos till time's mid night	D
Shrouds all or better say the shutting light	D
Of a forgotten yesterday Dissect	D
Every ideal workman to reject	D
In favour of your fearful ignorance	U
The thousand phantasms eager to advance	U
And point you but to those within your reach	N2
Were you the first who brought in modern speech	N2
The Multitude to be materialized	D
That loose eternal unrest who devised	D
An apparition i' the midst The rout	D
Was checked a breathless ring was formed about	D
That sudden flower get round at any risk	O2
The gold rough pointel silver blazing disk	O2
O' the lily Swords across it Reign thy reign	W
And serve thy frolic service Charlemagne	W
The very child of over joyousness	U
Unfeeling thence strong therefore Strength by stress	U
Of Strength comes of that forehead confident	D
Those widened eyes expecting heart's content	D
A calm as out of just quelled noise nor swerves	U
For doubt the ample cheek in gracious curves	U
Abutting on the upthrust nether lip	P2
He wills how should he doubt then Ages slip	P2
Was it Sordello pried into the work	V
So far accomplished and discovered lurk	V
A company amid the other clans	U
Only distinct in priests for castellans	U
And popes for suzerains their rule confessed	D
Its rule their interest its interest	D
Living for sake of living there an end	D
Wrapt in itself no energy to spend	D
In making adversaries or allies	U
Dived you into its capabilities	U
And dared create out of that sect a soul	K2
Should turn a multitude already whole	K2
Into its body Speak plainer Is 't so sure	Q2
God's church lives by a King's investiture	M2
Look to last step A staggering a shock	R2
What 's mere sand is demolished while the rock	R2
Endures a column of black fiery dust	D
Blots heaven that help was prematurely thrust	D
Aside perchance but air clears nought 's erased	D
Of the true outline Thus much being firm based	D
The other was a scaffold See him stand	D
Buttressed upon his mattock Hildebrand	D
Of the huge brain mask welded ply o'er ply	K2
As in a forge it buries either eye	K2
White and extinct that stupid brow teeth clenched	D
The neck tight corded too the chin deep trenched	D
As if a cloud enveloped him while fought	D
Under its shade grim prizers thought with thought	D
At dead lock agonizing he until	K2
The victor thought leap radiant up and Will	K2
The slave with folded arms and drooping lids	U
They fought for lean forth flame like as it bids	U
Call him no flower a mandrake of the earth	S2
Thwarted and dwarfed and blasted in its birth	S2
Rather a fruit of suffering's excess	U
Thence feeling therefore stronger still by stress	U
Of Strength work Knowledge Full three hundred years	U
Have men to wear away in smiles and tears	U
Between the two that nearly seemed to touch	T2
Observe you quit one workman and you clutch	T2
Another letting both their trains go by	K2
The actors out of either's policy	U
Heinrich on this hand Otho Barbaross	U
Carry the three Imperial crowns across	U
Aix' Iron Milan's Silver and Rome's Gold	D
While Alexander Innocent uphold	D
On that each Papal key but link on link	U2
Why is it neither chain betrays a chink	U2
How coalesce the small and great Alack	U2
For one thrust forward fifty such fall back	U2
Do the popes coupled there help Gregory	U
Alone Hark from the hermit Peter's cry	K2
At Claremont down to the first serf that says	U
Friedrich 's no liege of his while he delays	U
Getting the Pope's curse off him The Crusade	D
Or trick of breeding Strength by other aid	D
Than Strength is safe Hark from the wild harangue	U2
Of Vimmercato to the carroch's clang	U2
Yonder The League or trick of turning Strength	V2
Against Pernicious Strength is safe at length	V2
Yet hark from Mantuan Albert making cease	U
The fierce ones to Saint Francis preaching peace	U
Yonder God's Truce or trick to supersede	D
The very Use of Strength is safe Indeed	D
We trench upon the future Who is found	D
To take next step next age trail o'er the ground	D
Shall I say gourd like not the flower's display	K2
Nor the root's prowess but the plenteous way	K2
O' the plant produced by joy and sorrow whence	U
Unfeeling and yet feeling strongest thence	U
Knowledge by stress of merely Knowledge No	W
E'en were Sordello ready to forego	W
His life for this 't were overleaping work	U2
Some one has first to do howe'er it irk	U2
Nor stray a foot's breadth from the beaten road	D
Who means to help must still support the load	D
Hildebrand lifted 'why hast Thou ' he groaned	D
Imposed on me a burthen Paul had moaned	D
'And Moses dropped beneath ' Much done and yet	D
Doubtless that grandest task God ever set	D
On man left much to do at his arm's wrench	W2
Charlemagne's scaffold fell but pillars blench	W2
Merely start back again perchance have been	W
Taken for buttresses crash every screen	W
Hammer the tenons better and engage	C2
A gang about your work for the next age	C2
Or two of Knowledge part by Strength and part	D
By Knowledge Then indeed perchance may start	D
Sordello on his race would time divulge	C2
Such secrets If one step's awry one bulge	C2
Calls for correction by a step we thought	D
Got over long since why till that is wrought	D
No progress And the scaffold in its turn	W
Becomes its service o'er a thing to spurn	W
Meanwhile if your half dozen years of life	X2
In store dispose you to forego the strife	X2
Who takes exception Only bear in mind	D
Ferrara 's reached Goito 's left behind	D
As you then were as half yourself desist	D
The warrior part of you may an it list	D
Finding real faulchions difficult to poise	U
Fling them afar and taste the cream of joys	U
By wielding such in fancy what is bard	D
Of you may spurn the vehicle that marred	D
Elys so much and in free fancy glut	D
His sense yet write no verses you have but	D
To please yourself for law and once could please	U
What once appeared yourself by dreaming these	U
Rather than doing these in days gone by	K2
But all is changed the moment you descry	K2
Mankind as half yourself then fancy's trade	D
Ends once and always how may half evade	D
The other half men are found half of you	D
Out of a thousand helps just one or two	D
Can be accomplished presently but flinch	W2
From these as from the faulchion raised an inch	W2
Elys described a couplet and make proof	Y2
Of fancy then while one half lolls aloof	Y2
I' the vines completing Rome to the tip top	Z2
See if for that your other half will stop	Z2
A tear begin a smile The rabble's woes	U
Ludicrous in their patience as they chose	U
To sit about their town and quietly	U
Be slaughtered the poor reckless soldiery	K2
With their ignoble rhymes on Richard how	A3
'Polt foot ' sang they 'was in a pitfall now '	-
Cheering each other from the engine mounts	U
That crippled spawling idiot who recounts	U
How lopped of limbs he lay stupid as stone	W
Till the pains crept from out him one by one	W
And wriggles round the archers on his head	D
To earn a morsel of their chestnut bread	D
And Cino always in the self same place	U
Weeping beside that other wretch's case	U
Eyepits to ear one gangrene since he plied	D
The engine in his coat of raw sheep's hide	D
A double watch in the noon sun and see	U
Lucchino beauty with the favours free	U
Trim hacqueton spruce beard and scented hair	K2
Campaigning it for the first time cut there	K2
In two already boy enough to crawl	K2
For latter orpine round the southern wall	K2
Tom where Richard 's kept because that whore	K2
Marfisa the fool never saw before	K2
Sickened for flowers this wearisomest siege	C2
And Tiso's wife men liked their pretty liege	C2
Cared for her least of whims once Berta wed	D
A twelvemonth gone and now poor Tiso's dead	D
Delivering herself of his first child	D
On that chance heap of wet filth reconciled	D
To fifty gazers Here a wind below	W
Made moody music augural of woe	W
From the pine barrier What if now the scene	W
Draws to a close yourself have really been	W
You plucking purples in Goito's moss	U
Like edges of a trabea not to cross	U
Your consul humour or dry aloe shafts	U
For fasces at Ferrara he fate wafts	U
This very age her whole inheritance	U
Of opportunities Yet you advance	U
Upon the last Since talking is your trade	D
There 's Salinguerra left you to persuade	D
Fail then	W
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	-
No no which latest chance secure	K2
Leaped up and cried Sordello this made sure	K2
The past were yet redeemable its work	U2
Was help the Guelfs whom I howe'er it irk	U2
Thus help He shook the foolish aloe haulm	M
Out of his doublet paused proceeded calm	M
To the appointed presence The large head	D
Turned on its socket And your spokesman said	D
The large voice is Elcorte's happy sprout	D
Few such so finishing a speech no doubt	D
Addressed to Palma silent at his side	D
My sober councils have diversified	D
Elcorte's son good forward as you may	M
Our lady's minstrel with so much to say	M
The hesitating sunset floated back	U2
Rosily traversed in the wonted track	U2
The chamber from the lattice o'er the girth	S2
Of pines to the huge eagle blacked in earth	S2
Opposite outlined sudden spur to crest	D
That solid Salinguerra and caressed	D
Palma's contour 't was day looped back night's pall	K2
Sordello had a chance left spite of all	K2
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	-
And much he made of the convincing speech	W2
Meant to compensate for the past and reach	W2
Through his youth's daybreak of unprofit quite	D
To his noon's labour so proceed till night	D
Leisurely The great argument to bind	D
Taurello with the Guelf Cause body and mind	D
Came the consummate rhetoric to that	D
Yet most Sordello's argument dropped flat	D
Through his accustomed fault of breaking yoke	U2
Disjoining him who felt from him who spoke	U2
Was 't not a touching incident so prompt	D
A rendering the world its just accompt	D
Once proved its debtor Who 'd suppose before	K2
This proof that he Goito's god of yore	K2
At duty's instance could demean himself	B3
So memorably dwindle to a Guelf	B3
Be sure in such delicious flattery steeped	D
His inmost self at the out portion peeped	D
Thus occupied then stole a glance at those	U
Appealed to curious if her colour rose	U
Or his lip moved while he discreetly urged	D
The need of Lombardy becoming purged	D
At soonest of her barons the poor part	D
Abandoned thus missing the blood at heart	D
And spirit in brain unseasonably off	B3
Elsewhere But though his speech was worthy scoff	B3
Good humoured Salinguerra famed for tact	D
And tongue who careless of his phrase ne'er lacked	D
The right phrase and harangued Honorius dumb	M
At his accession looked as all fell plumb	M
To purpose and himself found interest	D
In every point his new instructor pressed	D
Left playing with the rescript's white wax seal	K2
To scrutinize Sordello head and heel	K2
He means to yield assent sure No alas	U
All he replied was What it comes to pass	U
That poesy sooner than politics	U
Makes fade young hair To think such speech could fix	U
Taurello	K2
	-
	-
Then a flash of bitter truth	C3
So fantasies could break and fritter youth	C3
That he had long ago lost earnestness	U
Lost will to work lost power to even express	U
The need of working Earth was turned a grave	B3
No more occasions now though he should crave	B3
Just one in right of superhuman toil	K2
To do what was undone repair such spoil	K2
Alter the past nothing would give the chance	U
Not that he was to die he saw askance	U
Protract the ignominious years beyond	D
To dream in time to hope and time despond	D
Remember and forget be sad rejoice	U
As saved a trouble he might at his choice	U
One way or other idle life out drop	Z2
No few smooth verses by the way for prop	Z2
A thyrsus these sad people all the same	M
Should pick up and set store by far from blame	M
Plant o'er his hearse convinced his better part	D
Survived him Rather tear men out the heart	D
O' the truth Sordello muttered and renewed	D
His propositions for the Multitude	D
	-
	-
But Salinguerra who at this attack	U2
Had thrown great breast and ruffling corslet back	U2
To hear the better smilingly resumed	D
His task beneath the carroch's warning boomed	D
He must decide with Tito courteously	K2
He turned then even seeming to agree	U
With his admonisher Assist the Pope	D3
Extend Guelf domination fill the scope	D3
O' the Church thus based on All by All for All	K2
Change Secular to Evangelical	K2
Echoing his very sentence all seemed lost	D
When suddenly he looked up laughingly almost	D
To Palma This opinion of your friend's	U
For instance would it answer Palma's ends	U
Best were it not turn Guelf submit our Strength	V2
Here he drew out his baldric to its length	V2
To the Pope's Knowledge let our captive slip	P2
Wide to the walls throw ope our gates equip	P2
Azzo with what I hold here Who 'll subscribe	E3
To a trite censure of the minstrel tribe	E3
Henceforward or pronounce as Heinrich used	D
'Spear heads for battle burr heads for the joust '	-
When Constance for his couplets would promote	D
Alcamo from a parti coloured coat	D
To holding her lord's stirrup in the wars	U
Not that I see where couplet making jars	U
With common sense at Mantua I had borne	W
This chanted better than their most forlorn	W
Of bull baits that 's indisputable	K2
	-
	-
Brave	B3
Whom vanity nigh slew contempt shall save	B3
All 's at an end a Troubadour suppose	U
Mankind will class him with their friends or foes	U
A puny uncouth ailing vassal think	U2
The world and him bound in some special link	U2
Abrupt the visionary tether burst	D
What were rewarded here or what amerced	D
If a poor drudge solicitous to dream	M
Deservingly got tangled by his theme	M
So far as to conceit the knack or gift	D
Or whatsoe'er it be of verse might lift	D
The globe a lever like the hand and head	D
Of Men of Action as the Jongleurs said	D
The Great Men in the people's dialect	D
	-
	-
And not a moment did this scorn affect	D
Sordello scorn the poet They for once	U
Asking what was obtained a full response	U
Bid Naddo think at Mantua he had but	D
To look into his promptuary put	D
Finger on a set thought in a set speech	W2
But was Sordello fitted thus for each	W2
Conjecture Nowise since within his soul	K2
Perception brooded unexpressed and whole	K2
A healthy spirit like a healthy frame	M
Craves aliment in plenty all the same	M
Changes assimilates its aliment	D
Perceived Sordello on a truth intent	D
Next day no formularies more you saw	U
Than figs or olives in a sated maw	U
'T is Knowledge whither such perceptions tend	D
They lose themselves in that means to an end	D
The many old producing some one new	D
A last unlike the first If lies are true	D
The Caliph's wheel work man of brass receives	U
A meal munched millet grains and lettuce leaves	U
Together in his stomach rattle loose	U
You find them perfect next day to produce	U
But ne'er expect the man on strength of that	D
Can roll an iron camel collar flat	D
Like Haroun's self I tell you what was stored	D
Bit by bit through Sordello's life outpoured	D
That eve was for that age a novel thing	U2
And round those three the People formed a ring	U2
Of visionary judges whose award	D
He recognised in full faces that barred	D
Henceforth return to the old careless life	B3
In whose great presence therefore his first strife	B3
For their sake must not be ignobly fought	D
All these for once approved of him he thought	D
Suspended their own vengeance chose await	D
The issue of this strife to reinstate	D
Them in the right of taking it in fact	D
He must be proved king ere they could exact	D
Vengeance for such king's defalcation Last	D
A reason why the phrases flowed so fast	D
Was in his quite forgetting for a time	M
Himself in his amazement that the rhyme	M
Disguised the royalty so much he there	K2
And Salinguerra yet all unaware	K2
Who was the lord who liegeman	D
	-
	-
Thus I lay	K2
On thine my spirit and compel obey	K2
His lord my liegeman impotent to build	D
Another Rome but hardly so unskilled	D
In what such builder should have been as brook	U2
One shame beyond the charge that I forsook	U2
His function Free me from that shame I bend	D
A brow before suppose new years to spend	D
Allow each chance nor fruitlessly recur	K2
Measure thee with the Minstrel then demur	K2
At any crowd he claims That I must cede	D
Shamed now my right to my especial meed	D
Confess thee fitter help the world than I	K2
Ordained its champion from eternity	D
Is much but to behold thee scorn the post	D
I quit in thy behalf to hear thee boast	D
What makes my own despair And while he rung	U2
The changes on this theme the roof up sprung	U2
The sad walls of the presence chamber died	D
Into the distance or embowering vied	D
With far away Goito's vine frontier	K2
And crowds of faces only keeping clear	K2
The rose light in the midst his vantage ground	D
To fight their battle from deep clustered round	D
Sordello with good wishes no mere breath	F3
Kind prayers for him no vapour since come death	F3
Come life he was fresh sinewed every joint	D
Each bone new marrowed as whom gods anoint	D
Though mortal to their rescue Now let sprawl	K2
The snaky volumes hither Is Typhon all	K2
For Hercules to trample good report	D
From Salinguerra only to extort	D
So was I closed he his inculcating	U2
A poet must be earth's essential king	U2
So was I royal so and if I fail	K2
'T is not the royalty ye witness quail	K2
But one deposed who caring not exert	D
Its proper essence trifled malapert	D
With accidents instead good things assigned	D
As heralds of a better thing behind	D
And worthy through display of these put forth	G3
Never the inmost all surpassing worth	S2
That constitutes him king precisely since	U
As yet no other spirit may evince	U
Its like the power he took most pride to test	D
Whereby all forms of life had been professed	D
At pleasure forms already on the earth	S2
Was but a means to power beyond whose birth	S2
Should in its novelty be kingship's proof	B3
Now whether he came near or kept aloof	B3
The several forms he longed to imitate	D
Not there the kingship lay he sees too late	D
Those forms unalterable first as last	D
Proved him her copier not the protoplast	D
Of nature what would come of being free	D
By action to exhibit tree for tree	D
Bird beast for beast and bird or prove earth bore	K2
One veritable man or woman more	K2
Means to an end such proofs are what the end	D
Let essence whatsoe'er it be extend	D
Never contract Already you include	D
The multitude then let the multitude	D
Include yourself and the result were new	D
Themselves before the multitude turn you	D
This were to live and move and have in them	M
Your being and secure a diadem	M
You should transmit because no cycle yearns	U
Beyond itself but on itself returns	U
When the full sphere in wane the world o'erlaid	D
Long since with you shall have in turn obeyed	D
Some orb still prouder some displayer still	K2
More potent than the last of human will	K2
And some new king depose the old Of such	W2
Am I whom pride of this elates too much	W2
Safe rather say 'mid troops of peers again	D
I with my words hailed brother of the train	D
Deeds once sufficed for let the world roll back	U2
Who fails through deeds howe'er diverse retrack	U2
My purpose still my task A teeming crust	D
Air flame earth wave at conflict Then needs must	D
Emerge some Calm embodied these refer	K2
The brawl to yellow bearded Jupiter	K2
No Saturn some existence like a pact	D
And protest against Chaos some first fact	D
I' the faint of time My deep of life I know	D
Is unavailing e'en to poorly show	D
For here the Chief immeasurably yawned	D
Deeds in their due gradation till Song dawned	D
The fullest effluence of the finest mind	D
All in degree no way diverse in kind	D
From minds about it minds which more or less	U
Lofty or low move seeking to impress	U
Themselves on somewhat but one mind has climbed	D
Step after step by just ascent sublimed	D
Thought is the soul of act and stage by stage	C2
Soul is from body still to disengage	C2
As tending to a freedom which rejects	U
Such help and incorporeally affects	U
The world producing deeds but not by deeds	U
Swaying in others frames itself exceeds	U
Assigning them the simpler tasks it used	D
To patiently perform till Song produced	D
Acts by thoughts only for the mind divest	D
Mind of e'en Thought and lo God's unexpressed	D
Will draws above us All then is to win	D
Save that How much for me then where begin	D
My work About me faces and they flock	U2
The earnest faces What shall I unlock	U2
By song behold me prompt whate'er it be	D
To minister how much can mortals see	D
Of Life No more than so I take the task	U2
And marshal you Life's elemental masque	U2
Show Men on evil or on good lay stress	U
This light this shade make prominent suppress	U
All ordinary hues that softening blend	D
Such natures with the level Apprehend	D
Which sinner is which saint if I allot	D
Hell Purgatory Heaven a blaze or blot	D
To those you doubt concerning I enwomb	M
Some wretched Friedrich with his red hot tomb	M
Some dubious spirit Lombard Agilulph	B3
With the black chastening river I engulph	B3
Some unapproached Matilda I enshrine	D
With languors of the planet of decline	D
These fail to recognize to arbitrate	D
Between henceforth to rightly estimate	D
Thus marshalled in the masque Myself the while	K2
As one of you am witness shrink or smile	K2
At my own showing Next age what 's to do	D
The men and women stationed hitherto	D
Will I unstation good and bad conduct	D
Each nature to its farthest or obstruct	D
At soonest in the world light thwarted breaks	U
A limpid purity to rainbow flakes	U
Or shadow massed freezes to gloom behold	D
How such with fit assistance to unfold	D
Or obstacles to crush them disengage	C2
Their forms love hate hope fear peace make war wage	C2
In presence of you all Myself implied	D
Superior now as by the platform's side	D
I bade them do and suffer would last content	D
The world no that 's too far I circumvent	D
A few my masque contented and to these	U
Offer unveil the last of mysteries	U
Man's inmost life shall have yet freer play	K2
Once more I cast external things away	K2
And natures composite so decompose	U
That Why he writes Sordello	K2
	-
	-
How I rose	U
And how have you advanced since evermore	K2
Yourselves effect what I was fain before	K2
Effect what I supplied yourselves suggest	D
What I leave bare yourselves can now invest	D
How we attain to talk as brothers talk	U2
In half words call things by half names no balk	U2
From discontinuing old aids To day	K2
Takes in account the work of Yesterday	K2
Has not the world a Past now its adept	D
Consults ere he dispense with or accept	D
New aids a single touch more may enhance	U
A touch less turn to insignificance	U
Those structures' symmetry the past has strewed	D
The world with once so bare Leave the mere rude	D
Explicit details 't is but brother's speech	W2
We need speech where an accent's change gives each	W2
The other's soul no speech to understand	D
By former audience need was then to expand	D
Expatiate hardly were we brothers true	D
Nor I lament my small remove from you	D
Nor reconstruct what stands already Ends	U
Accomplished turn to means my art intends	U
New structure from the ancient as they changed	D
The spoils of every clime at Venice ranged	D
The horned and snouted Libyan god upright	D
As in his desert by some simple bright	D
Clay cinerary pitcher Thebes as Rome	M
Athens as Byzant rifled till their Dome	M
From earth's reputed consummations razed	D
A seal the all transmuting Triad blazed	D
Above Ah whose that fortune Ne'ertheless	U
E'en he must stoop contented to express	U
No tithe of what 's to say the vehicle	K2
Never sufficient but his work is still	K2
For faces like the faces that select	D
The single service I am bound effect	D
That bid me cast aside such fancies bow	A3
Taurello to the Guelf cause disallow	A3
The Kaiser's coming which with heart soul strength	V2
I labour for this eve who feel at length	V2
My past career's outrageous vanity	D
And would as its amends die even die	D
Now I first estimate the boon of life	B3
If death might win compliance sure this strife	B3
Is right for once the People my support	D
	-
	-
My poor Sordello what may we extort	D
By this I wonder Palma's lighted eyes	U
Turned to Taurello who long past surprise	U
Began You love him what you 'd say at large	C2
Let me say briefly First your father's charge	C2
To me his friend peruse I guessed indeed	D
You were no stranger to the course decreed	D
He bids me leave his children to the saints	U
As for a certain project he acquaints	U
The Pope with that and offers him the best	D
Of your possessions to permit the rest	D
Go peaceably to Ecelin a stripe	H2
Of soil the cursed Vicentines will gripe	H2
To Alberic a patch the Trevisan	D
Clutches already extricate who can	D
Treville Villarazzi Puissolo	A3
Loria and Cartiglione all must go	U2
And with them go my hopes 'T is lost then Lost	D
This eve our crisis and some pains it cost	D
Procuring thirty years as good I'd spent	D
Like our admonisher But each his bent	D
Pursues no question one might live absurd	D
Oneself this while by deed as he by word	D
Persisting to obtrude an influence where	K2
'T is made account of much as nay you fare	K2
With twice the fortune youngster I submit	D
Happy to parallel my waste of wit	D
With the renowned Sordello's you decide	D
A course for me Romano may abide	D
Romano Bacchus After all what dearth	S2
Of Ecelins and Alberics on earth	S2
Say there 's a prize in prospect must disgrace	U
Betide competitors unless they style	A3
Themselves Romano Were it worth my while	A3
To try my own luck But an obscure place	U
Suits me there wants a youth to bustle stalk	U2
And attitudinize some fight more talk	U2
Most flaunting badges how I might make clear	K2
Since Friedrich's very purposes lie here	K2
Here pity they are like to lie For me	D
With station fixed unceremoniously	D
Long since small use contesting I am but	D
The liegeman you are born the lieges shut	D
That gentle mouth now or resume your kin	D
In your sweet self were Palma Ecelin	D
For me to work with Could that neck endure	K2
This bauble for a cumbrous garniture	K2
She should or might one bear it for her Stay	D
I have not been so flattered many a day	D
As by your pale friend Bacchus The least help	H3
Would lick the hind's fawn to a lion's whelp	H3
His neck is broad enough a ready tongue	U2
Beside too writhled but the main thing young	U2
I could why look ye	D
	-
	-
And the badge was thrown	D
Across Sordello's neck This badge alone	D
Makes you Romano's Head becomes superb	I3
On your bare neck which would on mine disturb	I3
The pauldron said Taurello A mad act	D
Nor even dreamed about before in fact	D
Not when his sportive arm rose for the nonce	U
But he had dallied overmuch this once	U
With power the thing was done and he aware	K2
The thing was done proceeded to declare	K2
So like a nature made to serve excel	A3
In serving only feel by service well	A3
That he would make Sordello that and more	K2
As good a scheme as any What 's to pore	K2
At in my face he asked ponder instead	D
This piece of news you are Romano's Head	D
One cannot slacken pace so near the goal	A3
Suffer my Azzo to escape heart whole	A3
This time For you there 's Palma to espouse	U
For me one crowning trouble ere I house	U
Like my compeer	K2
	-
	-
On which ensued a strange	C2
And solemn visitation there came change	C2
O'er every one of them each looked on each	W2
Up in the midst a truth grew without speech	W2
And when the giddiness sank and the haze	U
Subsided they were sitting no amaze	U
Sordello with the baldric on his sire	K2
Silent though his proportions seemed aspire	K2
Momently and interpreting the thrill	A3
Night at its ebb Palma was found there still	A3
Relating somewhat Adelaide confessed	D
A year ago while dying on her breast	D
Of a contrivance that Vicenza night	D
When Ecelin had birth Their convoy's flight	D
Cut off a moment coiled inside the flame	M
That wallowed like a dragon at his game	M
The toppling city through San Biagio rocks	U
And wounded lies in her delicious locks	U
Retrude the frail mother on her face	U
None of her wasted just in one embrace	U
Covering her child when as they lifted her	K2
Cleaving the tumult mighty mightier	K2
And mightiest Taurello's cry outbroke	U2
Leapt like a tongue of fire that cleaves the smoke	U2
Midmost to cheer his Mantuans onward drown	D
His colleague Ecelin's clamour up and down	D
The disarray failed Adelaide see then	D
Who was the natural chief the man of men	D
Outstripping time her infant there burst swathe	J3
Stood up with eyes haggard beyond the scathe	J3
From wandering after his heritage	C2
Lost once and lost for aye and why that rage	C2
That deprecating glance A new shape leant	D
On a familiar shape gloatingly bent	D
O'er his discomfiture 'mid wreaths it wore	K2
Still one outflamed the rest her child's before	K2
'T was Salinguerra's for his child scorn hate	D
Rage now might startle her when all too late	D
Then was the moment rival's foot had spurned	D
Never that House to earth else Sense returned	D
The act conceived adventured and complete	D
They bore away to an obscure retreat	D
Mother and child Retrude's self not slain	D
Nor even here Taurello moved though pain	D
Was fled and what assured them most 't was fled	D
All pain was if they raised the pale hushed head	D
'T would turn this way and that waver awhile	A3
And only settle into its old smile	A3
Graceful as the disquieted water flag	U2
Steadying itself remarked they in the quag	U2
On either side their path when suffered look	U2
Down on her child They marched no sign once shook	U2
The company's close litter of crossed spears	U
Till as they reached Goito a few tears	U
Slipped in the sunset from her long black lash	W2
And she was gone So far the action rash	W2
No crime They laid Retrude in the font	D
Taurello's very gift her child was wont	D
To sit beneath constant as eve he came	M
To sit by its attendant girls the same	M
As one of them For Palma she would blend	D
With this magnific spirit to the end	D
That ruled her first but scarcely had she dared	D
To disobey the Adelaide who scared	D
Her into vowing never to disclose	U
A secret to her husband which so froze	U
His blood at half recital she contrived	D
To hide from him Taurello's infant lived	D
Lest by revealing that himself should mar	K2
Romano's fortunes And a crime so far	K2
Palma received that action she was told	D
Of Salinguerra's nature of his cold	D
Calm acquiescence in his lot But free	K2
To impart the secret to Romano she	K2
Engaged to repossess Sordello of	B3
His heritage and hers and that way doff	B3
The mask but after years long years while now	D
Was not Romano's sign mark on that brow	D
	-
	-
Across Taurello's heart his arms were locked	D
And when he did speak 't was as if he mocked	D
The minstrel who had not to move he said	D
Nor stir should fate defraud him of a shred	D
Of his son's infancy much less his youth	J3
Laughingly all this which to aid in truth	J3
Himself reserved on purpose had not grown	D
Old not too old 't was best they kept alone	D
Till now and never idly met till now	D
Then in the same breath told Sordello how	D
All intimations of this eve's event	D
Were lies for Friedrich must advance to Trent	D
Thence to Verona then to Rome there stop	H3
Tumble the Church down institute a top	H3
The Alps a Prefecture of Lombardy	D
That 's now no prophesying what may be	K2
Anon with a new monarch of the clime	M
Native of Gesi passing his youth's prime	M
At Naples Tito bids my choice decide	D
On whom	M
	-
	-
Embrace him madman Palma cried	D
Who through the laugh saw sweat drops burst apace	U
And his lips blanching he did not embrace	U
Sordello but he laid Sordello's hand	D
On his own eyes mouth forehead	D
	-
	-
Understand	D
This while Sordello was becoming flushed	D
Out of his whiteness thoughts rushed fancies rushed	D
He pressed his hand upon his head and signed	D
Both should forbear him Nay the best 's behind	D
Taurello laughed not quite with the same laugh	B3
The truth is thus we scatter ay like chaff	B3
These Guelfs a despicable monk recoils	U
From nor expect a fickle Kaiser spoils	U
Our triumph Friedrich Think you I intend	D
Friedrich shall reap the fruits of blood I spend	D
And brain I waste Think you the people clap	H3
Their hands at my out hewing this wild gap	H3
For any Friedrich to fill up 'T is mine	D
That 's yours I tell you towards some such design	D
Have I worked blindly yes and idly yes	U
And for another yes but worked no less	U
With instinct at my heart I else had swerved	D
While now look round My cunning has preserved	D
Samminiato that 's a central place	U
Secures us Florence boy in Pisa's case	U
By land as she by sea with Pisa ours	U
And Florence and Pistoia one devours	U
The land at leisure Gloriously dispersed	D
Brescia observe Milan Piacenza first	D
That flanked us ah you know not in the March	W2
On these we pile as keystone of our arch	W2
Romagna and Bologna whose first span	D
Covered the Trentine and the Valsugan	D
Sofia's Egna by Bolgiano 's sure	K2
So he proceeded half of all this pure	K2
Delusion doubtless nor the rest too true	K2
But what was undone he felt sure to do	K2
As ring by ring he wrung off flung away	D
The pauldron rings to give his sword arm play	D
Need of the sword now That would soon adjust	D
Aught wrong at present to the sword intrust	D
Sordello's whiteness undersize 't was plain	D
He hardly rendered right to his own brain	D
Like a brave hound men educate to pride	D
Himself on speed or scent nor aught beside	D
As though he could not gift by gift match men	D
Palma had listened patiently but when	D
'T was time expostulate attempt withdraw	K2
Taurello from his child she without awe	K3
Took off his iron arms from one by one	D
Sordello's shrinking shoulders and that done	D
Made him avert his visage and relieve	B3
Sordello you might see his corslet heave	B3
The while who loose rose tried to speak then sank	U2
They left him in the chamber All was blank	U2
And even reeling down the narrow stair	K2
Taurello kept up as though unaware	K2
Palma was by to guide him the old device	U
Something of Milan how we muster thrice	U
The Torriani's strength there all along	U2
Our own Visconti cowed them thus the song	U2
Continued even while she bade him stoop	H3
Thrid somehow by some glimpse of arrow loop	H3
The turnings to the gallery below	U2
Where he stopped short as Palma let him go	U2
When he had sat in silence long enough	B3
Splintering the stone bench braving a rebuff	B3
She stopped the truncheon only to commence	U
One of Sordello's poems a pretence	U
For speaking some poor rhyme of Elys' hair	K2
And head that 's sharp and perfect like a pear	K2
So smooth and close are laid the few fine locks	U
Stained like pale honey oozed from topmost rocks	U
Sun blanched the livelong summer from his worst	D
Performance the Goito as his first	D
And that at end conceiving from the brow	D
And open mouth no silence would serve now	D
Went on to say the whole world loved that man	D
And for that matter thought his face tho' wan	D
Eclipsed the Count's he sucking in each phrase	U
As if an angel spoke The foolish praise	U
Ended he drew her on his mailed knees made	D
Her face a framework with his hands a shade	D
A crown an aureole there must she remain	D
Her little mouth compressed with smiling pain	D
As in his gloves she felt her tresses twitch	W2
To get the best look at in fittest niche	W2
Dispose his saint That done he kissed her brow	D
Lauded her father for his treason now	D
He told her only how could one suspect	D
The wit in him whose clansman recollect	D
Was ever Salinguerra she the same	M
Romano and his lady so might claim	M
To know all as she should and thus begun	D
Schemes with a vengeance schemes on schemes not one	D
Fit to be told that foolish boy he said	D
But only let Sordello Palma wed	D
Then	D
	-
	-
'T was a dim long narrow place at best	D
Midway a sole grate showed the fiery West	D
As shows its corpse the world's end some split tomb	M
A gloom a rift of fire another gloom	M
Faced Palma but at length Taurello set	D
Her free the grating held one ragged jet	D
Of fierce gold fire he lifted her within	D
The hollow underneath how else begin	D
Fate's second marvellous cycle else renew	K2
The ages than with Palma plain in view	K2
Then paced the passage hands clenched head erect	D
Pursuing his discourse a grand unchecked	D
Monotony made out from his quick talk	U2
And the recurring noises of his walk	U2
Somewhat too much like the o'ercharged assent	D
Of two resolved friends in one danger blent	D
Who hearten each the other against heart	D
Boasting there 's nought to care for when apart	D
The boaster all 's to care for He beside	D
Some shape not visible in power and pride	D
Approached out of the dark ginglingly near	K2
Nearer passed close in the broad light his ear	K2
Crimson eyeballs suffused temples full fraught	D
Just a snatch of the rapid speech you caught	D
And on he strode into the opposite dark	U2
Till presently the harsh heel's turn a spark	U2
I' the stone and whirl of some loose embossed throng	U2
That crashed against the angle aye so long	U2
After the last punctual to an amount	D
Of mailed great paces you could not but count	D
Prepared you for the pacing back again	D
And by the snatches you might ascertain	D
That Friedrich's Prefecture surmounted left	D
By this alone in Italy they cleft	D
Asunder crushed together at command	D
Of none were free to break up Hildebrand	D
Rebuild he and Sordello Charlemagne	D
But garnished Strength with Knowledge if we deign	D
Accept that compromise and stoop to give	B3
Rome law the C sar's Representative	B3
Enough that the illimitable flood	D
Of triumphs after triumphs understood	D
In its faint reflux you shall hear sufficed	D
Young Ecelin for appanage enticed	D
Him on till these long quiet in their graves	U
He found 't was looked for that a whole life's braves	U
Should somehow be made good so weak and worn	D
Must stagger up at Milan one grey morn	D
Of the to come and fight his latest fight	D
But Salinguerra's prophecy at height	D
He voluble with a raised arm and stiff	B3
A blaring voice a blazing eye as if	B3
He had our very Italy to keep	H3
Or cast away or gather in a heap	H3
To garrison the better ay his word	D
Was run the cucumber into a gourd	D
Drive Trent upon Apulia at their pitch	W2
Who spied the continents and islands which	W2
Grew mulberry leaves and sickles in the map	H3
Strange that three such confessions so should hap	H3
To Palma Dante spoke with in the clear	K2
Amorous silence of the Swooning sphere	K2
Cunizza as he called her Never ask	U2
Of Palma more She sat knowing her task	U2
Was done the labour of it for success	U
Concerned not Palma passion's votaress	U
Triumph at neight and thus Sordello crowned	D
Above the passage suddenly a sound	D
Stops speech stops walk back shrinks Taurello bids	U
With large involuntary asking lids	U
Palma interpret 'T is his own foot stamp	H3
Your hand His summons Nay this idle damp	H3
Befits not Out they two reeled dizzily	U2
Visconti 's strong at Milan resumed he	K2
In the old somewhat insignificant way	D
Was Palma wont years afterward to say	D
As though the spirit's flight sustained thus far	K2
Dropped at that very instant	D
	-
	-
Gone they are	K2
Palma Taurello Eglamor anon	D
Ecelin only Naddo 's never gone	D
Labours this moonrise what the Master meant	D
Is Squarcialupo speckled purulent	D
I 'd say but when was Providence put out	D
He carries somehow handily about	D
His spite nor fouls himself Goito's vines	U
Stand like a cheat detected stark rough lines	U
The moon breaks through a grey mean scale against	D
The vault where this eve's Maiden thou remain'st	D
Like some fresh martyr eyes fixed who can tell	U2
As Heaven now all 's at end did not so well	U2
Spite of the faith and victory to leave	B3
Its virgin quite to death in the lone eve	B3
While the persisting hermit bee ha wait	D
No longer these in compass forward fate	D

Robert Browning

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