The Ring And The Book Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPLQJR SAJTUVVWGAVJ VJJJVXJJVYVZA2VB2JMC 2GLVJVJJGVJD2MJJE2F2 G2H2VH2VI2JVJ2WMVVJK 2L2K E2JJJVM2J JLVVVVVN2JJVJVKVO2B2 P2VQ2JR2E2S2VJT2XJJV VP2JU2VMJE2JJ JVZJV2W2VX2J JJT2JJVJVJJVMY2JZ2JV VJMH2A3F2JB3JE2JJJVL 2C3JMMD3JE3F3JVJJJVJ JG3H3VMVJVI3F3JWJK2P 2JJJZJBJF3JB2F3JMV2F 3JU2J3JJK3L3MJJJMM3F 3F3N3O3JJJJP3JQ3JE2Y 2F3F3MJJEA3J F3JJJR3I3S3H3V2JO3F3 T3U3MJ MF3O3F3MV3W3F3JJMJ3X 3MMF3F3JL3O3JK2F3Q2O 3J KO3F3O3Y3H2JJF3Z3JF3 F3A4O3JMF3K2G2F3K2F3 B4O3JK2JJF3O3JC3JMP2 JF3JF3U3C3JJJO3ZJO3 P2F3K2JJJF3MMJJ2JF3S 2AO3JF3K2W3 T2C4JF3K2H2F2O3F3JMX F3D4K2MJJF3Y2K2O3JF3 RK2ZF3JO3JJJJJU2F3R3 F3JO3E4O3F3F3K2 JK2JT2JW3JMMF3AK2F4O 3F3F3MJB3JJT2G4F3JF3 JJF3H2XF3JJJJJH4K2I3 JMO3I4MK2A3 MJ4F3JJF3MO3JMJK4K2J JJJH2JJJJJS2MMMF3F3J T2JJF3JO3JJJO3JF3JL4 N2F3JJJF3R3F3K3JJF3R 3JF3O3MJF3F3O3O3F3JJ W3W3F3JF3JJL4MJF3K2M 4N3F3O3F3K2E2MF3JMF3 R3JO3MW3Y3E2JO3T2JF3 JJO3MJO3MO3ML4JF3AE2 MF3JN4O3JJO4JP4JF3O3 N3K2F3T2O3K2F3F3O3JO 3Q2Z3Q4E2JK2JO3MJR4J JQ4JJF3T2B3JF4H2JJF3 JF3F3P2E2F3F3F3O3Y2K 2JO3MF3F3JJF3JH4F3F3 JXKJO3F4S4JJK2F3O3T4 AO3JJJF3JJK2O3XJF3F3 JF3JM F3K2MJT2JU4O3MF3JF3F 3JJO3XF3M JF3O3KMF3JO3U4 JJT2MB3AT4O3V4T2F3JF 3K2O3F3MK2O3F3K2R3E2 K2F3F3K2AHJT2H2F3K2M JT2JB3F3O3F3T2H3JMF3 R3MJJJF3F3F3R3V4JU4F 3F3H2F3E2JM F3F3JH2O3F3O3 E2O3JJO3X2E2JF3F3JE2 JT2O3JJF3E2E4T2JJJJF 3JJJK2O3E2JF3O3JH2JM JJJO3H2 E2H3JF3JF3F3E2JF3E2J O3J JJJF3MU4JU4O3T2H2F3O 3K2JF3JK2JF3W4MH4JO3 JXU4JJMJJJJE2X4JMJF3 JF3F3F3 MF3E3K2JI3F3Y4K2O3JJ G3F3F3JF3JU4JJO3F3K2 JH2T2 O3F3JT2F3JJF3O3E2F3J E2JF3MF3F3F3JMQ4JF3E 2MZ4JAK4JU4F3 JO3JO3JF3JF3JT2U4JJJ F3JJJH2Z4F3H3JJJO3JJ F3K3JK2K2F3JMT2H2Q2K 2MF3JE2F3JK2F3JE2T2O 3O3MF3MF3E2F3MF3T2O3 MF3ME2JE2JF4 JMO3F3F3O3JJO3F3JMJF 3JJJH2O3K2JF3H2E2JMJ MF3H2MF3K3JJMF3T2K2E 2F3JF3JH2MJE2E2H3G3F 3F3E2JF3F3 JF3JJK2JK2K2F3JK2MF3 JF3K2E2I4U4MK2F3T2JF 3JO3XK2 H2S4F3JF3E2MF3JR4MJJ X2X2JJF3F3JF3Y4F3MH2 F3Q2MF3U4T2F3T2JQ2O3 MF3JO3E2MJJJE2T2MMJJ H2J2F3O3AJJF3JU4JF3F 3H2O3MF3T2O3W4F3K2E2 MJME2JO3MF3U4F3MMH2E 2K3JO3F3JE2F3MO3MMF3 JMQ2JO3T2JJO3H2JT2JJ F3F3JQ2JO3JQ4E2O3T2H 2JMF3MO3JJMJQ2JJH2F3 JQ2JF3F3MJT2K2JJO3H2 O3MJT2JJJJ H2E2K2ME2F3MF3E2JJK2 MF3MME2F3MK4MF3JJO3M E2F3JMJE2JMO3F3E2JMT 2JJO3JF3JH2ME2JJJU4O 3JU4MH2 JJMJT2F3MJE2F3JF3JF3 O3JA3F3 E2O3JH2F3H2K2O3JF3T2 JK2O3JJF3K2JJJJJJF3J JJE2F3F3 JO3JE2F3JJJMF3A E2 JO3E2MF3JT2ME2JQ2JMJ JQ2JMJE2JQ4H2JM

Do you see this Ring	A
'Tis Rome work made to match	B
By Castellani's imitative craft	C
Etrurian circlets found some happy morn	D
After a dropping April found alive	E
Spark like 'mid unearthed slope side figtree roots	F
That roof old tombs at Chiusi soft you see	G
Yet crisp as jewel cutting There's one trick	H
Craftsmen instruct me one approved device	I
And but one fits such slivers of pure gold	J
As this was such mere oozings from the mine	K
Virgin as oval tawny pendent tear	L
At beehive edge when ripened combs o'erflow	M
To bear the file's tooth and the hammer's tap	N
Since hammer needs must widen out the round	O
And file emboss it fine with lily flowers	P
Ere the stuff grow a ring thing right to wear	L
That trick is the artificer melts up wax	Q
With honey so to speak he mingles gold	J
With gold's alloy and duly tempering both	R
Effects a manageable mass then works	S
But his work ended once the thing a ring	A
Oh there's repristination Just a spirt	J
O' the proper fiery acid o'er its face	T
And forth the alloy unfastened flies in fume	U
While self sufficient now the shape remains	V
The rondure brave the lilied loveliness	V
Gold as it was is shall be evermore	W
Prime nature with an added artistry	G
No carat lost and you have gained a ring	A
What of it 'Tis a figure a symbol say	V
A thing's sign now for the thing signified	J
	-
Do you see this square old yellow Book I toss	V
I' the air and catch again and twirl about	J
By the crumpled vellum covers pure crude fact	J
Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard	J
And brains high blooded ticked two centuries since	V
Examine it yourselves I found this book	X
Gave a lira for it eightpence English just	J
Mark the predestination when a Hand	J
Always above my shoulder pushed me once	V
One day still fierce 'mid many a day struck calm	Y
Across a Square in Florence crammed with booths	V
Buzzing and blaze noontide and market time	Z
Toward Baccio's marble ay the basement ledge	A2
O' the pedestal where sits and menaces	V
John of the Black Bands with the upright spear	B2
'Twixt palace and church Riccardi where they lived	J
His race and San Lorenzo where they lie	M
This book precisely on that palace step	C2
Which meant for lounging knaves o' the Medici	G
Now serves re venders to display their ware	L
'Mongst odds and ends of ravage picture frames	V
White through the worn gilt mirror sconces chipped	J
Bronze angel heads once knobs attached to chests	V
Handled when ancient dames chose forth brocade	J
Modern chalk drawings studies from the nude	J
Samples of stone jet breccia porphyry	G
Polished and rough sundry amazing busts	V
In baked earth broken Providence be praised	J
A wreck of tapestry proudly purposed web	D2
When reds and blues were indeed red and blue	M
Now offered as a mat to save bare feet	J
Since carpets constitute a cruel cost	J
Treading the chill scagliola bedward then	E2
A pile of brown etched prints two crazie each	F2
Stopped by a conch a top from fluttering forth	G2
Sowing the Square with works of one and the same	H2
Master the imaginative Sienese	V
Great in the scenic backgrounds name and fame	H2
None of you know nor does he fare the worse	V
From these Oh with a Lionard going cheap	I2
If it should prove as promised that Joconde	J
Whereof a copy contents the Louvre these	V
I picked this book from Five compeers in flank	J2
Stood left and right of it as tempting more	W
A dog's eared Spicilegium the fond tale	M
O' the Frail One of the Flower by young Dumas	V
Vulgarised Horace for the use of schools	V
The Life Death Miracles of Saint Somebody	J
Saint Somebody Else his Miracles Death and Life	K2
With this one glance at the lettered back of which	L2
And Stall cried I a lira made it mine	K
	-
Here it is this I toss and take again	E2
Small quarto size part print part manuscript	J
A book in shape but really pure crude fact	J
Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard	J
And brains high blooded ticked two centuries since	V
Give it me back The thing's restorative	M2
I' the touch and sight	J
	-
That memorable day	J
June was the month Lorenzo named the Square	L
I leaned a little and overlooked my prize	V
By the low railing round the fountain source	V
Close to the statue where a step descends	V
While clinked the cans of copper as stooped and rose	V
Thick ankled girls who brimmed them and made place	V
For marketmen glad to pitch basket down	N2
Dip a broad melon leaf that holds the wet	J
And whisk their faded fresh And on I read	J
Presently though my path grew perilous	V
Between the outspread straw work piles of plait	J
Soon to be flapping each o'er two black eyes	V
And swathe of Tuscan hair on festas fine	K
Through fire irons tribes of tongs shovels in sheaves	V
Skeleton bedsteads wardrobe drawers agape	O2
Rows of tall slim brass lamps with dangling gear	B2
And worse cast clothes a sweetening in the sun	P2
None of them took my eye from off my prize	V
Still read I on from written title page	Q2
To written index on through street and street	J
At the Strozzi at the Pillar at the Bridge	R2
Till by the time I stood at home again	E2
In Casa Guidi by Felice Church	S2
Under the doorway where the black begins	V
With the first stone slab of the staircase cold	J
I had mastered the contents knew the whole truth	T2
Gathered together bound up in this book	X
Print three fifths written supplement the rest	J
Romana Homicidiorum nay	J
Better translate A Roman murder case	V
Position of the entire criminal cause	V
Of Guido Franceschini nobleman	P2
With certain Four the cutthroats in his pay	J
Tried all five and found guilty and put to death	U2
By heading or hanging as befitted ranks	V
At Rome on February Twenty Two	M
Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight	J
Wherein it is disputed if and when	E2
Husbands may kill adulterous wives yet 'scape	J
The customary forfeit	J
	-
Word for word	J
So ran the title page murder or else	V
Legitimate punishment of the other crime	Z
Accounted murder by mistake just that	J
And no more in a Latin cramp enough	V2
When the law had her eloquence to launch	W2
But interfilleted with Italian streaks	V
When testimony stooped to mother tongue	X2
That was this old square yellow book about	J
	-
Now as the ingot ere the ring was forged	J
Lay gold beseech you hold that figure fast	J
So in this book lay absolutely truth	T2
Fanciless fact the documents indeed	J
Primary lawyer pleadings for against	J
The aforesaid Five real summed up circumstance	V
Adduced in proof of these on either side	J
Put forth and printed as the practice was	V
At Rome in the Apostolic Chamber's type	J
And so submitted to the eye o' the Court	J
Presided over by His Reverence	V
Rome's Governor and Criminal Judge the trial	M
Itself to all intents being then as now	Y2
Here in the book and nowise out of it	J
Seeing there properly was no judgment bar	Z2
No bringing of accuser and accused	J
And whoso judged both parties face to face	V
Before some court as we conceive of courts	V
There was a Hall of Justice that came last	J
For justice had a chamber by the hall	M
Where she took evidence first summed up the same	H2
Then sent accuser and accused alike	A3
In person of the advocate of each	F2
To weigh that evidence' worth arrange array	J
The battle 'Twas the so styled Fisc began	B3
Pleaded and since he only spoke in print	J
The printed voice of him lives now as then	E2
The public Prosecutor Murder's proved	J
With five what we call qualities of bad	J
Worse worst and yet worse still and still worse yet	J
Crest over crest crowning the cockatrice	V
That beggar hell's regalia to enrich	L2
Count Guido Franceschini punish him	C3
Thus was the paper put before the court	J
In the next stage no noisy work at all	M
To study at ease In due time like reply	M
Came from the so styled Patron of the Poor	D3
Official mouthpiece of the five accused	J
Too poor to fee a better Guido's luck	E3
Or else his fellows' which I hardly know	F3
An outbreak as of wonder at the world	J
A fury fit of outraged innocence	V
A passion of betrayed simplicity	J
Punish Count Guido For what crime what hint	J
O' the colour of a crime inform us first	J
Reward him rather Recognise we say	V
In the deed done a righteous judgment dealt	J
All conscience and all courage there's our Count	J
Charactered in a word and what's more strange	G3
He had companionship in privilege	H3
Found four courageous conscientious friends	V
Absolve applaud all five as props of law	M
Sustainers of society perchance	V
A trifle over hasty with the hand	J
To hold her tottering ark had tumbled else	V
But that's a splendid fault whereat we wink	I3
Wishing your cold correctness sparkled so	F3
Thus paper second followed paper first	J
Thus did the two join issue nay the four	W
Each pleader having an adjunct True he killed	J
So to speak in a certain sort his wife	K2
But laudably since thus it happed quoth one	P2
Whereat more witness and the case postponed	J
Thus it happed not since thus he did the deed	J
And proved himself thereby portentousest	J
Of cutthroats and a prodigy of crime	Z
As the woman that he slaughtered was a saint	J
Martyr and miracle quoth the other to match	B
Again more witness and the case postponed	J
A miracle ay of lust and impudence	F3
Hear my new reasons interposed the first	J
Coupled with more of mine pursued his peer	B2
Beside the precedents the authorities	F3
From both at once a cry with an echo that	J
That was a firebrand at each fox's tail	M
Unleashed in a cornfield soon spread flare enough	V2
As hurtled thither and there heaped themselves	F3
From earth's four corners all authority	J
And precedent for putting wives to death	U2
Or letting wives live sinful as they seem	J3
How legislated now in this respect	J
Solon and his Athenians Quote the code	J
Of Romulus and Rome Justinian speak	K3
Nor modern Baldo Bartolo be dumb	L3
The Roman voice was potent plentiful	M
Cornelia de Sicariis hurried to help	J
Pompeia de Parricidiis Julia de	J
Something or other jostled Lex this and that	J
King Solomon confirmed Apostle Paul	M
That nice decision of Dolabella eh	M3
That pregnant instance of Theodoric oh	F3
Down to that choice example lian gives	F3
An instance I find much insisted on	N3
Of the elephant who brute beast though he were	O3
Yet understood and punished on the spot	J
His master's naughty spouse and faithless friend	J
A true tale which has edified each child	J
Much more shall flourish favoured by our court	J
Pages of proof this way and that way proof	P3
And always once again the case postponed	J
Thus wrangled brangled jangled they a month	Q3
Only on paper pleadings all in print	J
Nor ever was except i' the brains of men	E2
More noise by word of mouth than you hear now	Y2
Till the court cut all short with Judged your cause	F3
Receive our sentence Praise God We pronounce	F3
Count Guido devilish and damnable	M
His wife Pompilia in thought word and deed	J
Was perfect pure he murdered her for that	J
As for the Four who helped the One all Five	E
Why let employer and hirelings share alike	A3
In guilt and guilt's reward the death their due	J
	-
So was the trial at end do you suppose	F3
Guilty you find him death you doom him to	J
Ay were not Guido more than needs a priest	J
Priest and to spare this was a shot reserved	J
I learn this from epistles which begin	R3
Here where the print ends see the pen and ink	I3
Of the advocate the ready at a pinch	S3
My client boasts the clerkly privilege	H3
Has taken minor orders many enough	V2
Shows still sufficient chrism upon his pate	J
To neutralise a blood stain presbyter	O3
Primoe tonsuroe subdiaconus	F3
Sacerdos so he slips from underneath	T3
Your power the temporal slides inside the robe	U3
Of mother Church to her we make appeal	M
By the Pope the Church's head	J
	-
A parlous plea	M
Put in with noticeable effect it seems	F3
Since straight resumes the zealous orator	O3
Making a friend acquainted with the facts	F3
Once the word 'clericality' let fall	M
Procedure stopped and freer breath was drawn	V3
By all considerate and responsible Rome	W3
Quality took the decent part of course	F3
Held by the husband who was noble too	J
Or for the matter of that a churl would side	J
With too refined susceptibility	M
And honour which tender in the extreme	J3
Stung to the quick must roughly right itself	X3
At all risks not sit still and whine for law	M
As a Jew would if you squeezed him to the wall	M
Brisk trotting through the Ghetto Nay it seems	F3
Even the Emperor's Envoy had his say	F3
To say on the subject might not see unmoved	J
Civility menaced throughout Christendom	L3
By too harsh measure dealt her champion here	O3
Lastly what made all safe the Pope was kind	J
From his youth up reluctant to take life	K2
If mercy might be just and yet show grace	F3
Much more unlikely then in extreme age	Q2
To take a life the general sense bade spare	O3
'Twas plain that Guido would go scatheless yet	J
	-
But human promise oh how short of shine	K
How topple down the piles of hope we rear	O3
How history proves nay read Herodotus	F3
Suddenly starting from a nap as it were	O3
A dog sleep with one shut one open orb	Y3
Cried the Pope's great self Innocent by name	H2
And nature too and eighty six years old	J
Antonio Pignatelli of Naples Pope	J
Who had trod many lands known many deeds	F3
Probed many hearts beginning with his own	Z3
And now was far in readiness for God	J
'Twas he who first bade leave those souls in peace	F3
Those Jansenists re nicknamed Molinists	F3
'Gainst whom the cry went like a frowsy tune	A4
Tickling men's ears the sect for a quarter of an hour	O3
I' the teeth of the world which clown like loves to chew	J
Be it but a straw 'twixt work and whistling while	M
Taste some vituperation bite away	F3
Whether at marjoram sprig or garlic clove	K2
Aught it may sport with spoil and then spit forth	G2
Leave them alone bade he those Molinists	F3
Who may have other light than we perceive	K2
Or why is it the whole world hates them thus	F3
Also he peeled off that last scandal rag	B4
Of Nepotism and so observed the poor	O3
That men would merrily say Halt deaf and blind	J
Who feed on fat things leave the master's self	K2
To gather up the fragments of his feast	J
These be the nephews of Pope Innocent	J
His own meal costs but five carlines a day	F3
Poor priest's allowance for he claims no more	O3
He cried of a sudden this great good old Pope	J
When they appealed in last resort to him	C3
I have mastered the whole matter I nothing doubt	J
Though Guido stood forth priest from head to heel	M
Instead of as alleged a piece of one	P2
And further were he from the tonsured scalp	J
To the sandaled sole of him my son and Christ's	F3
Instead of touching us by finger tip	J
As you assert and pressing up so close	F3
Only to set a blood smutch on our robe	U3
I and Christ would renounce all right in him	C3
Am I not Pope and presently to die	J
And busied how to render my account	J
And shall I wait a day ere I decide	J
On doing or not doing justice here	O3
Cut off his head to morrow by this time	Z
Hang up his four mates two on either hand	J
And end one business more	O3
	-
So said so done	P2
Rather so writ for the old Pope bade this	F3
I find with his particular chirograph	K2
His own no such infirm hand Friday night	J
And next day February Twenty Two	J
Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight	J
Not at the proper head and hanging place	F3
On bridge foot close by Castle Angelo	M
Where custom somewhat staled the spectacle	M
'Twas not so well i' the way of Rome beside	J
The noble Rome the Rome of Guido's rank	J2
But at the city's newer gayer end	J
The cavalcading promenading place	F3
Beside the gate and opposite the church	S2
Under the Pincian gardens green with Spring	A
'Neath the obelisk 'twixt the fountains in the Square	O3
Did Guido and his fellows find their fate	J
All Rome for witness and my writer adds	F3
Remonstrant in its universal grief	K2
Since Guido had the suffrage of all Rome	W3
	-
This is the bookful thus far take the truth	T2
The untempered gold the fact untampered with	C4
The mere ring metal ere the ring be made	J
And what has hitherto come of it Who preserves	F3
The memory of this Guido and his wife	K2
Pompilia more than Ademollo's name	H2
The etcher of those prints two crazie each	F2
Saved by a stone from snowing broad the Square	O3
With scenic backgrounds Was this truth of force	F3
Able to take its own part as truth should	J
Sufficient self sustaining Why if so	M
Yonder's a fire into it goes my book	X
As who shall say me nay and what the loss	F3
You know the tale already I may ask	D4
Rather than think to tell you more thereof	K2
Ask you not merely who were he and she	M
Husband and wife what manner of mankind	J
But how you hold concerning this and that	J
Other yet unnamed actor in the piece	F3
The young frank handsome courtly Canon now	Y2
The priest declared the lover of the wife	K2
He who no question did elope with her	O3
For certain bring the tragedy about	J
Giuseppe Caponsacchi his strange course	F3
I' the matter was it right or wrong or both	R
Then the old couple slaughtered with the wife	K2
By the husband as accomplices in crime	Z
Those Comparini Pietro and his spouse	F3
What say you to the right or wrong of that	J
When at a known name whispered through the door	O3
Of a lone villa on a Christmas night	J
It opened that the joyous hearts inside	J
Might welcome as it were an angel guest	J
Come in Christ's name to knock and enter sup	J
And satisfy the loving ones he saved	J
And so did welcome devils and their death	U2
I have been silent on that circumstance	F3
Although the couple passed for close of kin	R3
To wife and husband were by some accounts	F3
Pompilia's very parents you know best	J
Also that infant the great joy was for	O3
That Gaetano the wife's two weeks' babe	E4
The husband's first born child his son and heir	O3
Whose birth and being turned his night to day	F3
Why must the father kill the mother thus	F3
Because she bore his son and saved himself	K2
	-
Well British Public ye who like me not	J
God love you and will have your proper laugh	K2
At the dark question laugh it I laugh first	J
Truth must prevail the proverb vows and truth	T2
Here is it all i' the book at last as first	J
There it was all i' the heads and hearts of Rome	W3
Gentle and simple never to fall nor fade	J
Nor be forgotten Yet a little while	M
The passage of a century or so	M
Decads thrice five and here's time paid his tax	F3
Oblivion gone home with her harvesting	A
And left all smooth again as scythe could shave	K2
Far from beginning with you London folk	F4
I took my book to Rome first tried truth's power	O3
On likely people Have you met such names	F3
Is a tradition extant of such facts	F3
Your law courts stand your records frown a row	M
What if I rove and rummage Why you'll waste	J
Your pains and end as wise as you began	B3
Every one snickered names and facts thus old	J
Are newer much than Europe news we find	J
Down in to day's Diario Records quotha	T2
Why the French burned them what else do the French	G4
The rap and rending nation And it tells	F3
Against the Church no doubt another gird	J
At the Temporality your Trial of course	F3
Quite otherwise this time submitted I	J
Clean for the Church and dead against the world	J
The flesh and the devil does it tell for once	F3
The rarer and the happier All the same	H2
Content you with your treasure of a book	X
And waive what's wanting Take a friend's advice	F3
It's not the custom of the country Mend	J
Your ways indeed and we may stretch a point	J
Go get you manned by Manning and new manned	J
By Newman and mayhap wise manned to boot	J
By Wiseman and we'll see or else we won't	J
Thanks meantime for the story long and strong	H4
A pretty piece of narrative enough	K2
Which scarce ought so to drop out one would think	I3
From the more curious annals of our kind	J
Do you tell the story now in off hand style	M
Straight from the book Or simply here and there	O3
The while you vault it through the loose and large	I4
Hang to a hint Or is there book at all	M
And don't you deal in poetry make believe	K2
And the white lies it sounds like	A3
	-
Yes and no	M
From the book yes thence bit by bit I dug	J4
The lingot truth that memorable day	F3
Assayed and knew my piecemeal gain was gold	J
Yes but from something else surpassing that	J
Something of mine which mixed up with the mass	F3
Made it bear hammer and be firm to file	M
Fancy with fact is just one fact the more	O3
To wit that fancy has informed transpierced	J
Thridded and so thrown fast the facts else free	M
As right through ring and ring runs the djereed	J
And binds the loose one bar without a break	K4
I fused my live soul and that inert stuff	K2
Before attempting smithcraft on the night	J
After the day when truth thus grasped and gained	J
The book was shut and done with and laid by	J
On the cream coloured massive agate broad	J
'Neath the twin cherubs in the tarnished frame	H2
O' the mirror tall thence to the ceiling top	J
And from the reading and that slab I leant	J
My elbow on the while I read and read	J
I turned to free myself and find the world	J
And stepped out on the narrow terrace built	J
Over the street and opposite the church	S2
And paced its lozenge brickwork sprinkled cool	M
Because Felice church side stretched a glow	M
Through each square window fringed for festival	M
Whence came the clear voice of the cloistered ones	F3
Chanting a chant made for midsummer nights	F3
I know not what particular praise of God	J
It always came and went with June Beneath	T2
I' the street quick shown by openings of the sky	J
When flame fell silently from cloud to cloud	J
Richer than that gold snow Jove rained on Rhodes	F3
The townsmen walked by twos and threes and talked	J
Drinking the blackness in default of air	O3
A busy human sense beneath my feet	J
While in and out the terrace plants and round	J
One branch of tall datura waxed and waned	J
The lamp fly lured there wanting the white flower	O3
Over the roof o' the lighted church I looked	J
A bowshot to the street's end north away	F3
Out of the Roman gate to the Roman road	J
By the river till I felt the Apennine	L4
And there would lie Arezzo the man's town	N2
The woman's trap and cage and torture place	F3
Also the stage where the priest played his part	J
A spectacle for angels ay indeed	J
There lay Arezzo Farther then I fared	J
Feeling my way on through the hot and dense	F3
Romeward until I found the wayside inn	R3
By Castelnuovo's few mean hut like homes	F3
Huddled together on the hill foot bleak	K3
Bare broken only by that tree or two	J
Against the sudden bloody splendour poured	J
Cursewise in his departure by the day	F3
On the low house roof of that squalid inn	R3
Where they three for the first time and the last	J
Husband and wife and priest met face to face	F3
Whence I went on again the end was near	O3
Step by step missing none and marking all	M
Till Rome itself the ghastly goal I reached	J
Why all the while how could it otherwise	F3
The life in me abolished the death of things	F3
Deep calling unto deep as then and there	O3
Acted itself over again once more	O3
The tragic piece I saw with my own eyes	F3
In Florence as I trod the terrace breathed	J
The beauty and the fearfulness of night	J
How it had run this round from Rome to Rome	W3
Because you are to know they lived at Rome	W3
Pompilia's parents as they thought themselves	F3
Two poor ignoble hearts who did their best	J
Part God's way part the other way than God's	F3
To somehow make a shift and scramble through	J
The world's mud careless if it splashed and spoiled	J
Provided they might so hold high keep clean	L4
Their child's soul one soul white enough for three	M
And lift it to whatever star should stoop	J
What possible sphere of purer life than theirs	F3
Should come in aid of whiteness hard to save	K2
I saw the star stoop that they strained to touch	M4
And did touch and depose their treasure on	N3
As Guido Franceschini took away	F3
Pompilia to be his for evermore	O3
While they sang Now let us depart in peace	F3
Having beheld thy glory Guido's wife	K2
I saw the star supposed but fog o' the fen	E2
Gilded star fashion by a glint from hell	M
Having been heaved up haled on its gross way	F3
By hands unguessed before invisible help	J
From a dark brotherhood and specially	M
Two obscure goblin creatures fox faced this	F3
Cat clawed the other called his next of kin	R3
By Guido the main monster cloaked and caped	J
Making as they were priests to mock God more	O3
Abate Paul Canon Girolamo	M
These who had rolled the starlike pest to Rome	W3
And stationed it to suck up and absorb	Y3
The sweetness of Pompilia rolled again	E2
That bloated bubble with her soul inside	J
Back to Arezzo and a palace there	O3
Or say a fissure in the honest earth	T2
Whence long ago had curled the vapour first	J
Blown big by nether fires to appal day	F3
It touched home broke and blasted far and wide	J
I saw the cheated couple find the cheat	J
And guess what foul rite they were captured for	O3
Too fain to follow over hill and dale	M
That child of theirs caught up thus in the cloud	J
And carried by the Prince o' the Power of the Air	O3
Whither he would to wilderness or sea	M
I saw them in the potency of fear	O3
Break somehow through the satyr family	M
For a grey mother with a monkey mien	L4
Mopping and mowing was apparent too	J
As confident of capture all took hands	F3
And danced about the captives in a ring	A
Saw them break through breathe safe at Rome again	E2
Saved by the selfish instinct losing so	M
Their loved one left with haters These I saw	F3
In recrudescency of baffled hate	J
Prepare to wring the uttermost revenge	N4
From body and soul thus left them all was sure	O3
Fire laid and cauldron set the obscene ring traced	J
The victim stripped and prostrate what of God	J
The cleaving of a cloud a cry a crash	O4
Quenched lay their cauldron cowered i' the dust the crew	J
As in a glory of armour like Saint George	P4
Out again sprang the young good beauteous priest	J
Bearing away the lady in his arms	F3
Saved for a splendid minute and no more	O3
For whom i' the path did that priest come upon	N3
He and the poor lost lady borne so brave	K2
Checking the song of praise in me had else	F3
Swelled to the full for God's will done on earth	T2
Whom but a dusk misfeatured messenger	O3
No other than the angel of this life	K2
Whose care is lest men see too much at once	F3
He made the sign such God glimpse must suffice	F3
Nor prejudice the Prince o' the Power of the Air	O3
Whose ministration piles us overhead	J
What we call first earth's roof and last heaven's floor	O3
Now grate o' the trap then outlet of the cage	Q2
So took the lady left the priest alone	Z3
And once more canopied the world with black	Q4
But through the blackness I saw Rome again	E2
And where a solitary villa stood	J
In a lone garden quarter it was eve	K2
The second of the year and oh so cold	J
Ever and anon there flittered through the air	O3
A snow flake and a scanty couch of snow	M
Crusted the grass walk and the garden mould	J
All was grave silent sinister when ha	R4
Glimmeringly did a pack of were wolves pad	J
The snow those flames were Guido's eyes in front	J
And all five found and footed it the track	Q4
To where a threshold streak of warmth and light	J
Betrayed the villa door with life inside	J
While an inch outside were those blood bright eyes	F3
And black lips wrinkling o'er the flash of teeth	T2
And tongues that lolled Oh God that madest man	B3
They parleyed in their language Then one whined	J
That was the policy and master stroke	F4
Deep in his throat whispered what seemed a name	H2
Open to Caponsacchi Guido cried	J
Gabriel cried Lucifer at Eden gate	J
Wide as a heart opened the door at once	F3
Showing the joyous couple and their child	J
The two weeks' mother to the wolves the wolves	F3
To them Close eyes And when the corpses lay	F3
Stark stretched and those the wolves their wolf work done	P2
Were safe embosomed by the night again	E2
I knew a necessary change in things	F3
As when the worst watch of the night gives way	F3
And there comes duly to take cognisance	F3
The scrutinising eye point of some star	O3
And who despairs of a new daybreak now	Y2
Lo the first ray protruded on those five	K2
It reached them and each felon writhed transfixed	J
Awhile they palpitated on the spear	O3
Motionless over Tophet stand or fall	M
I say the spear should fall should stand I say	F3
Cried the world come to judgment granting grace	F3
Or dealing doom according to world's wont	J
Those world's bystanders grouped on Rome's cross road	J
At prick and summons of the primal curse	F3
Which bids man love as well as make a lie	J
There prattled they discoursed the right and wrong	H4
Turned wrong to right proved wolves sheep and sheep wolves	F3
So that you scarce distinguished fell from fleece	F3
Till out spoke a great guardian of the fold	J
Stood up put forth his hand that held the crook	X
And motioned that the arrested point decline	K
Horribly off the wriggling dead weight reeled	J
Rushed to the bottom and lay ruined there	O3
Though still at the pit's mouth despite the smoke	F4
O' the burning tarriers turned again to talk	S4
And trim the balance and detect at least	J
A touch of wolf in what showed whitest sheep	J
A cross of sheep redeeming the whole wolf	K2
Vex truth a little longer less and less	F3
Because years came and went and more and more	O3
Brought new lies with them to be loved in turn	T4
Till all at once the memory of the thing	A
The fact that wolves or sheep such creatures were	O3
Which hitherto however men supposed	J
Had somehow plain and pillar like prevailed	J
I' the midst of them indisputably fact	J
Granite time's tooth should grate against not graze	F3
Why this proved standstone friable fast to fly	J
And give its grain away at wish o' the wind	J
Ever and ever more diminutive	K2
Base gone shaft lost only entablature	O3
Dwindled into no bigger than a book	X
Lay of the column and that little left	J
By the roadside 'mid the ordure shards and weeds	F3
Until I haply wandering that way	F3
Kicked it up turned it over and recognised	J
For all the crumblement this abacus	F3
This square old yellow book could calculate	J
By this the lost proportions of the style	M
	-
This was it from my fancy with those facts	F3
I used to tell the tale turned gay to grave	K2
But lacked a listener seldom such alloy	M
Such substance of me interfused the gold	J
Which wrought into a shapely ring therewith	T2
Hammered and filed fingered and favoured last	J
Lay ready for the renovating wash	U4
O' the water How much of the tale was true	O3
I disappeared the book grew all in all	M
The lawyers' pleadings swelled back to their size	F3
Doubled in two the crease upon them yet	J
For more commodity of carriage see	F3
And these are letters veritable sheets	F3
That brought posthaste the news to Florence writ	J
At Rome the day Count Guido died we find	J
To stay the craving of a client there	O3
Who bound the same and so produced my book	X
Lovers of dead truth did ye fare the worse	F3
Lovers of live truth found ye false my tale	M
	-
Well now there's nothing in nor out o' the world	J
Good except truth yet this the something else	F3
What's this then which proves good yet seems untrue	O3
This that I mixed with truth motions of mine	K
That quickened made the inertness mallealable	M
O' the gold was not mine what's your name for this	F3
Are means to the end themselves in part the end	J
Is fiction which makes fact alive fact too	O3
The somehow may be thishow	U4
	-
I find first	J
Writ down for very A B C of fact	J
In the beginning God made heaven and earth	T2
From which no matter with what lisp I spell	M
And speak out a consequence that man	B3
Man as befits the made the inferior thing	A
Purposed since made to grow not make in turn	T4
Yet forced to try and make else fail to grow	O3
Formed to rise reach at if not grasp and gain	V4
The good beyond him which attempt is growth	T2
Repeats God's process in man's due degree	F3
Attaining man's proportionate result	J
Creates no but resuscitates perhaps	F3
Inalienable the arch prerogative	K2
Which turns thought act conceives expresses too	O3
No less man bounded yearning to be free	F3
May so project his surplusage of soul	M
In search of body so add self to self	K2
By owning what lay ownerless before	O3
So find so fill full so appropriate forms	F3
That although nothing which had never life	K2
Shall get life from him be not having been	R3
Yet something dead may get to live again	E2
Something with too much life or not enough	K2
Which either way imperfect ended once	F3
An end whereat man's impulse intervenes	F3
Makes new beginning starts the dead alive	K2
Completes the incomplete and saves the thing	A
Man's breath were vain to light a virgin wick	H
Half burned out all but quite quenched wicks o' the lamp	J
Stationed for temple service on this earth	T2
These indeed let him breathe on and relume	H2
For such man's feat is in the due degree	F3
Mimic creation galvanism for life	K2
But still a glory portioned in the scale	M
Why did the mage say feeling as we are wont	J
For truth and stopping midway short of truth	T2
And resting on a lie I raise a ghost	J
Because he taught adepts man makes not man	B3
Yet by a special gift an art of arts	F3
More insight and more outsight and much more	O3
Will to use both of these than boast my mates	F3
I can detach from me commission forth	T2
Half of my soul which in its pilgrimage	H3
O'er old unwandered waste ways of the world	J
May chance upon some fragment of a whole	M
Rag of flesh scrap of bone in dim disuse	F3
Smoking flax that fed fire once prompt therein	R3
I enter spark like put old powers to play	M
Push lines out to the limit lead forth last	J
By a moonrise through a ruin of a crypt	J
What shall be mistily seen murmuringly heard	J
Mistakenly felt then write my name with Faust's	F3
Oh Faust why Faust Was not Elisha once	F3
Who bade them lay his staff on a corpse face	F3
There was no voice no hearing he went in	R3
Therefore and shut the door upon them twain	V4
And prayed unto the Lord and he went up	J
And lay upon the corpse dead on the couch	U4
And put his mouth upon its mouth his eyes	F3
Upon its eyes his hands upon its hands	F3
And stretched him on the flesh the flesh waxed warm	H2
And he returned walked to and fro the house	F3
And went up stretched him on the flesh again	E2
And the eyes opened 'Tis a credible feat	J
With the right man and way	M
	-
Enough of me	F3
The Book I turn its medicinable leaves	F3
In London now till as in Florence erst	J
A spirit laughs and leaps through every limb	H2
And lights my eye and lifts me by the hair	O3
Letting me have my will again with these	F3
How title I the dead alive once more	O3
	-
Count Guido Franceschini the Aretine	E2
Descended of an ancient house though poor	O3
A beak nosed bushy bearded black haired lord	J
Lean pallid low of stature yet robust	J
Fifty years old having four years ago	O3
Married Pompilia Comparini young	X2
Good beautiful at Rome where she was born	E2
And brought her to Arezzo where they lived	J
Unhappy lives whatever curse the cause	F3
This husband taking four accomplices	F3
Followed this wife to Rome where she was fled	J
From their Arezzo to find peace again	E2
In convoy eight months earlier of a priest	J
Aretine also of still nobler birth	T2
Giuseppe Caponsacchi and caught her there	O3
Quiet in a villa on a Christmas night	J
With only Pietro and Violante by	J
Both her putative parents killed the three	F3
Aged they seventy each and she seventeen	E2
And two weeks since the mother of his babe	E4
First born and heir to what the style was worth	T2
O' the Guido who determined dared and did	J
This deed just as he purposed point by point	J
Then bent upon escape but hotly pressed	J
And captured with his co mates that same night	J
He brought to trial stood on this defence	F3
Injury to his honour caused the act	J
That since his wife was false as manifest	J
By flight from home in such companionship	J
Death punishment deserved of the false wife	K2
And faithless parents who abetted her	O3
I' the flight aforesaid wronged nor God nor man	E2
Nor false she nor yet faithless they replied	J
The accuser cloaked and masked this murder glooms	F3
True was Pompilia loyal too the pair	O3
Out of the man's own heart this monster curled	J
This crime coiled with connivancy at crime	H2
His victim's breast he tells you hatched and reared	J
Uncoil we and stretch stark the worm of hell	M
A month the trial swayed this way and that	J
Ere judgment settled down on Guido's guilt	J
Then was the Pope that good Twelfth Innocent	J
Appealed to who well weighed what went before	O3
Affirmed the guilt and gave the guilty doom	H2
	-
Let this old woe step on the stage again	E2
Act itself o'er anew for men to judge	H3
Not by the very sense and sight indeed	J
Which take at best imperfect cognisance	F3
Since how heart moves brain and how both move hand	J
What mortal ever in entirety saw	F3
No dose of purer truth than man digests	F3
But truth with falsehood milk that feeds him now	E2
Not strong meat he may get to bear some day	J
To wit by voices we call evidence	F3
Uproar in the echo live fact deadened down	E2
Talked over bruited abroad whispered away	J
Yet helping us to all we seem to hear	O3
For how else know we save by worth of word	J
	-
Here are the voices presently shall sound	J
In due succession First the world's outcry	J
Around the rush and ripple of any fact	J
Fallen stonewise plumb on the smooth face of things	F3
The world's guess as it crowds the bank o' the pool	M
At what were figure and substance by their splash	U4
Then by vibrations in the general mind	J
At depth of deed already out of reach	U4
This threefold murder of the day before	O3
Say Half Rome's feel after the vanished truth	T2
Honest enough as the way is all the same	H2
Harbouring in the centre of its sense	F3
A hidden germ of failure shy but sure	O3
Should neutralise that honesty and leave	K2
That feel for truth at fault as the way is too	J
Some prepossession such as starts amiss	F3
By but a hair's breadth at the shoulder blade	J
The arm o' the feeler dip he ne'er so brave	K2
And so leads waveringly lets fall wide	J
O'the mark his finger meant to find and fix	F3
Truth at the bottom that deceptive speck	W4
With this Half Rome the source of swerving call	M
Over belief in Guido's right and wrong	H4
Rather than in Pompilia's wrong and right	J
Who shall say how who shall say why 'Tis there	O3
The instinctive theorising whence a fact	J
Looks to the eye as the eye likes the look	X
Gossip in a public place a sample speech	U4
Some worthy with his previous hint to find	J
A husband's side the safer and no whit	J
Aware he is not acus the while	M
How such an one supposes and states fact	J
To whosoever of a multitude	J
Will listen and perhaps prolong thereby	J
The not unpleasant flutter at the breast	J
Born of a certain spectacle shut in	E2
By the church Lorenzo opposite So they lounge	X4
Midway the mouth o' the street on Corso side	J
'Twixt palace Fiano and palace Ruspoli	M
Linger and listen keeping clear o' the crowd	J
Yet wishful one could lend that crowd one's eyes	F3
So universal is its plague of squint	J
And make hearts beat our time that flutter false	F3
All for the truth's sake mere truth nothing else	F3
How Half Rome found for Guido much excuse	F3
	-
Next from Rome's other half the opposite feel	M
For truth with a like swerve like unsuccess	F3
Or if success by no more skill but luck	E3
This time though rather siding with the wife	K2
However the fancy fit inclined that way	J
Than with the husband One wears drab one pink	I3
Who wears pink ask him Which shall win the race	F3
Of coupled runners like as egg and egg	Y4
Why if I must choose he with the pink scarf	K2
Doubtless for some such reason choice fell here	O3
A piece of public talk to correspond	J
At the next stage of the story just a day	J
Let pass and new day bring the proper change	G3
Another sample speech i' the market place	F3
O' the Barberini by the Capucins	F3
Where the old Triton at his fountain sport	J
Bernini's creature plated to the paps	F3
Puffs up steel sleet which breaks to diamond dust	J
A spray of sparkles snorted from his conch	U4
High over the caritellas out o' the way	J
O' the motley merchandising multitude	J
Our murder has been done three days ago	O3
The frost is over and gone the south wind laughs	F3
And to the very tiles of each red roof	K2
A smoke i' the sunshine Rome lies gold and glad	J
So listen how to the other half of Rome	H2
Pompilia seemed a saint and martyr both	T2
	-
Then yet another day let come and go	O3
With pause prelusive still of novelty	F3
Hear a fresh speaker neither this nor that	J
Half Rome aforesaid something bred of both	T2
One and one breed the inevitable three	F3
Such is the personage harangues you next	J
The elaborated product tertium quid	J
Rome's first commotion in subsidence gives	F3
The curd o' the cream flower o' the wheat as it were	O3
And finer sense o' the city Is this plain	E2
You get a reasoned statement of the case	F3
Eventual verdict of the curious few	J
Who care to sift a business to the bran	E2
Nor coarsely bolt it like the simpler sort	J
Here after ignorance instruction speaks	F3
Here clarity of candour history's soul	M
The critical mind in short no gossip guess	F3
What the superior social section thinks	F3
In person of some man of quality	F3
Who breathing musk from lace work and brocade	J
His solitaire amid the flow of frill	M
Powdered peruke on nose and bag at back	Q4
And cane dependent from the ruffled wrist	J
Harangues in silvery and selectest phrase	F3
'Neath waxlight in a glorified saloon	E2
Where mirrors multiply the girandole	M
Courting the approbation of no mob	Z4
But Eminence This and All Illustrious That	J
Who take snuff softly range in well bred ring	A
Card table quitters for observance' sake	K4
Around the argument the rational word	J
Still spite its weight and worth a sample speech	U4
How quality dissertated on the case	F3
	-
So much for Rome and rumour smoke comes first	J
Once the smoke risen untroubled we descry	O3
Clearlier what tongues of flame may spire and spit	J
To eye and ear each with appropriate tinge
According to its food pure or impure	O3
The actors no mere rumours of the act	J
Intervene First you hear Count Guido's voice	F3
In a small chamber that adjoins the court	J
Where Governor and Judges summoned thence	F3
Tommati Venturini and the rest	J
Find the accused ripe for declaring truth	T2
Soft cushioned sits he yet shifts seat shirks touch	U4
As with a twitchy brow and wincing lip	J
And cheek that changes to all kinds of white	J
He proffers his defence in tones subdued	J
Near to mock mildness now so mournful seems	F3
The obtuser sense truth fails to satisfy	J
Now moved from pathos at the wrong endured	J
To passion for the natural man is roused	J
At fools who first do wrong then pour the blame	H2
Of their wrong doing Satan like on Job	Z4
Also his tongue at times is hard to curb
Incisive nigh satiric bites the phrase	F3
Rough raw yet somehow claiming privilege	H3
It is so hard for shrewdness to admit	J
Folly means no harm when she calls black white	J
Eruption momentary at the most	J
Modified forthwith by a fall o'the fire	O3
Sage acquiescence for the world's the world	J
And what it errs in Judges rectify	J
He feels he has a fist then folds his arms	F3
Crosswise and makes his mind up to be meek	K3
And never once does he detach his eye	J
From those ranged there to slay him or to save	K2
But does his best man's service for himself	K2
Despite what twitches brow and makes lip wince	F3
His limbs' late taste of what was called the Cord	J
Or Vigil torture more facetiously	M
Even so they were wont to tease the truth	T2
Out of loath witness toying trifling time	H2
By torture 'twas a trick a vice of the age	Q2
Here there and everywhere what would you have	K2
Religion used to tell Humanity	M
She gave him warrant or denied him course	F3
And since the course was much to his own mind	J
Of pinching flesh and pulling bone from bone	E2
To unhusk truth a hiding in its hulls	F3
Nor whisper of a warning stopped the way	J
He in their joint behalf the burly slave	K2
Bestirred him mauled and maimed all recusants	F3
While prim in place Religion overlooked	J
And so had done till doomsday never a sign	E2
Nor sound of interference from her mouth	T2
But that at last the burly slave wiped brow	O3
Let eye give notice as if soul were there	O3
Muttered 'Tis a vile trick foolish more than vile	M
Should have been counted sin I make it so	F3
At any rate no more of it for me	M
Nay for I break the torture engine thus	F3
Then did Religion start up stare amain	E2
Look round for help and see none smile and say	F3
What broken is the rack Well done of thee	M
Did I forget to abrogate its use	F3
Be the mistake in common with us both	T2
One more fault our blind age shall answer for	O3
Down in my book denounced though it must be	M
Somewhere Henceforth find truth by milder means	F3
Ah but Religion did we wait for thee	M
To ope the book that serves to sit upon	E2
And pick such place out we should wait indeed	J
That is all history and what is not now	E2
Was then defendants found it to their cost	J
How Guido after being tortured spoke	F4
	-
Also hear Caponsacchi who comes next	J
Man and priest could you comprehend the coil	M
In days when that was rife which now is rare	O3
How mingling each its multifarious wires	F3
Now heaven now earth now heaven and earth at once	F3
Had plucked at and perplexed their puppet here	O3
Played off the young frank personable priest	J
Sworn fast and tonsured plain heaven's celibate	J
And yet earth's clear accepted servitor	O3
A courtly spiritual Cupid squire of dames	F3
By law of love and mandate of the mode	J
The Church's own or why parade her seal	M
Wherefore that chrism and consecrative work
Yet verily the world's or why go badged	J
A prince of sonneteers and lutanists	F3
Show colour of each vanity in vogue
Borne with decorum due on blameless breast	J
All that is changed now as he tells the court	J
How he had played the part excepted at	J
Tells it moreover now the second time	H2
Since for his cause of scandal his own share	O3
I' the flight from home and husband of the wife	K2
He has been censured punished in a sort	J
By relegation exile we should say	F3
To a short distance for a little time	H2
Whence he is summoned on a sudden now	E2
Informed that she he thought to save is lost	J
And in a breath bidden re tell his tale	M
Since the first telling somehow missed effect	J
And then advise in the matter There stands he	M
While the same grim black panelled chamber blinks	F3
As though rubbed shiny with the sins of Rome	H2
Told the same oak for ages wave washed wall	M
Whereto has set a sea of wickedness	F3
There where you yesterday heard Guido speak	K3
Speaks Caponsacchi and there face him too	J
Tommati Venturini and the rest	J
Who eight months earlier scarce repressed the smile	M
Forewent the wink waived recognition so	F3
Of peccadillos incident to youth	T2
Especially youth high born for youth means love	K2
Vows can't change nature priests are only men	E2
And love needs stratagem and subterfuge
Which age that once was youth should recognise	F3
May blame but needs not press too hard against	J
Here sit the old Judges then but with no grace	F3
Of reverend carriage magisterial port	J
For why The accused of eight months since same	H2
Who cut the conscious figure of a fool	M
Changed countenance dropped bashful gaze to ground	J
While hesitating for an answer then	E2
Now is grown judge himself terrifies now	E2
This now the other culprit called a judge	H3
Whose turn it is to stammer and look strange	G3
As he speaks rapidly angrily speech that smites	F3
And they keep silence bear blow after blow	F3
Because the seeming solitary man	E2
Speaking for God may have an audience too	J
Invisible no discreet judge provokes	F3
How the priest Caponsacchi said his say	F3
	-
Then a soul sights its lowest and its last	J
After the loud ones so much breath remains	F3
Unused by the four day's dying for she lived	J
Thus long miraculously long 'twas thought	J
Just that Pompilia might defend herself	K2
How while the hireling and the alien stoop	J
Comfort yet question since the time is brief	K2
And folk allowably inquisitive	K2
Encircle the low pallet where she lies	F3
In the good house that helps the poor to die	J
Pompilia tells the story of her life	K2
For friend and lover leech and man of law	M
Do service busy helpful ministrants	F3
As varied in their calling as their mind	J
Temper and age and yet from all of these	F3
About the white bed under the arched roof	K2
Is somehow as it were evolved a one	E2
Small separate sympathies combined and large	I4
Nothings that were grown something very much	U4
As if the bystanders gave each his straw	M
All he had though a trifle in itself	K2
Which plaited all together made a Cross	F3
Fit to die looking on and praying with	T2
Just as well as ivory or gold	J
So to the common kindliness she speaks	F3
There being scarce more privacy at the last	J
For mind than body but she is used to bear	O3
And only unused to the brotherly look	X
How she endeavoured to explain her life	K2
	-
Then since a Trial ensued a touch o' the same	H2
To sober us flustered with frothy talk	S4
And teach our common sense its helplessness	F3
For why deal simply with divining rod	J
Scrape where we fancy secret sources flow	F3
And ignore law the recognised machine	E2
Elaborate display of pipe and wheel	M
Framed to unchoak pump up and pour apace	F3
Truth in a flowery foam shall wash the world	J
The patent truth extracting process ha	R4
Let us make all that mystery turn one wheel	M
Give you a single grind of law at least	J
One orator of two on either side	J
Shall teach us the puissance of the tongue	X2
That is o' the pen which simulated tongue	X2
On paper and saved all except the sound	J
Which ever was Law's speech beside law's thought	J
That were too stunning too immense an odds	F3
That point of vantage law let nobly pass	F3
One lawyer shall admit us to behold	J
The manner of the making out a case	F3
First fashion of a speech the chick in egg	Y4
And masterpiece law's bosom incubates	F3
How Don Giacinto of the Arcangeli	M
Called Procurator of the Poor at Rome	H2
Now advocate for Guido and his mates	F3
The jolly learned man of middle age	Q2
Cheek and jowl all in laps with fat and law	M
Mirthful as mighty yet as great hearts use	F3
Despite the name and fame that tempt our flesh	U4
Constant to that devotion of the hearth	T2
Still captive in those dear domestic ties	F3
How he having a cause to triumph with	T2
All kind of interests to keep intact	J
More than one efficacious personage	Q2
To tranquillise conciliate and secure	O3
And above all public anxiety	M
To quiet show its Guido in good hands	F3
Also as if such burdens were too light	J
A certain family feast to claim his care	O3
The birthday banquet for the only son	E2
Paternity at smiling strife with law	M
How he brings both to buckle in one bond	J
And thick at throat with waterish under eye	J
Turns to his task and settles in his seat	J
And puts his utmost means to practice now	E2
Wheezes out law and whiffles Latin forth	T2
And just as though roast lamb would never be	M
Makes logic levigate the big crime small	M
Rubs palm on palm rakes foot with itchy foot	J
Conceives and inchoates the argument	J
Sprinkling each flower appropriate to the time	H2
Ovidian quip or Ciceronian crank	J2
A bubble in the larynx while he laughs	F3
As he had fritters deep down frying there	O3
How he turns twists and tries the oily thing	A
Shall be first speech for Guido 'gainst the Fisc
Then with a skip as it were from heel to head	J
Leaving yourselves fill up the middle bulk
O' the Trial reconstruct its shape august	J
From such exordium clap we to the close	F3
Give you if we dare wing to such a height	J
The absolute glory in some full grown speech	U4
On the other side some finished butterfly	J
Some breathing diamond flake with leaf gold fans	F3
That takes the air no trace of worm it was	F3
Or cabbage bed it had production from	H2
Giovambattista o' the Bottini Fisc
Pompilia's patron by the chance of the hour	O3
To morrow her persecutor composite he	M
As becomes who must meet such various calls	F3
Odds of age joined in him with ends of youth	T2
A man of ready smile and facile tear	O3
Improvised hopes despairs at nod and beck	W4
And language ah the gift of eloquence	F3
Language that goes as easy as a glove	K2
O'er good and evil smoothens both to one	E2
Rashness helps caution with him fires the straw	M
In free enthusiastic careless fit	J
On the first proper pinnacle of rock
Which happens as reward for all that zeal	M
To lure some bark to founder and bring gain	E2
While calm sits Caution rapt with heavenward eye	J
A true confessor's gaze amid the glare	O3
Beaconing to the breaker death and hell	M
Well done thou good and faithful she approves	F3
Hadst thou let slip a faggot to the beach	U4
The crew had surely spied thy precipice	F3
And saved their boat the simple and the slow	M
Who should have prompt forestalled the wrecker's fee	M
Let the next crew be wise and hail in time	H2
Just so compounded is the outside man	E2
Blue juvenile pure eye and pippin cheek	K3
And brow all prematurely soiled and seamed	J
With sudden age bright devastated hair	O3
Ah but you miss the very tones o' the voice	F3
The scrannel pipe that screams in heights of head	J
As in his modest studio all alone	E2
The tall wight stands a tiptoe strives and strains	F3
Both eyes shut like the cockerel that would crow	M
Tries to his own self amorously o'er	O3
What never will be uttered else than so	M
To the four walls for Forum and Mars' Hill	M
Speaks out the poesy which penned turns prose	F3
Clavecinist debarred his instrument	J
He yet thrums shirking neither turn nor trill	M
With desperate finger on dumb table edge	Q2
The sovereign rondo shall conclude his Suite	J
Charm an imaginary audience there	O3
From old Corelli to young Haendel both	T2
I' the flesh at Rome ere he perforce go print	J
The cold black score mere music for the mind	J
The last speech against Guido and his gang
With special end to prove Pompilia pure	O3
How the Fisc vindicates Pompilia's fame	H2
Then comes the all but end the ultimate	J
Judgment save yours Pope Innocent the Twelfth	T2
Simple sagacious mild yet resolute	J
With prudence probity and what beside	J
From the other world he feels impress at times	F3
Having attained to fourscore years and six	F3
How when the court found Guido and the rest	J
Guilty but law supplied a subterfuge	Q2
And passed the final sentence to the Pope	J
He bringing his intelligence to bear	O3
This last time on what ball behoves him drop	J
In the urn or white or black does drop a black	Q4
Send five souls more to just precede his own	E2
Stand him in stead and witness if need were	O3
How he is wont to do God's work on earth	T2
The manner of his sitting out the dim	H2
Droop of a sombre February day	J
In the plain closet where he does such work
With from all Peter's treasury one stool	M
One table and one lathen crucifix	F3
There sits the Pope his thoughts for company	M
Grave but not sad nay something like a cheer	O3
Leaves the lips free to be benevolent	J
Which all day long did duty firm and fast	J
A cherishing there is of foot and knee	M
A chafing loose skinned large veined hand with hand	J
What steward but knows when stewardship earns its wage	Q2
May levy praise anticipate the lord	J
He reads notes lays the papers down at last	J
Muses then takes a turn about the room	H2
Unclasps a huge tome in an antique guise	F3
Primitive print and tongue half obsolete	J
That stands him in diurnal stead opes page	Q2
Finds place where falls the passage to be conned	J
According to an order long in use	F3
And as he comes upon the evening's chance	F3
Starts somewhat solemnises straight his smile	M
Then reads aloud that portion first to last	J
And at the end lets flow his own thoughts forth	T2
Likewise aloud for respite and relief	K2
Till by the dreary relics of the west	J
Wan through the half moon window all his light	J
He bows the head while the lips move in prayer	O3
Writes some three brief lines signs and seals the same	H2
Tinkles a hand bell bids the obsequious Sir	O3
Who puts foot presently o' the closet sill	M
He watched outside of bear as superscribed	J
That mandate to the Governor forthwith	T2
Then heaves abroad his cares in one good sigh	J
Traverses corridor with no man's help	J
And so to sup as a clear conscience should	J
The manner of the judgment of the Pope	J
	-
Then must speak Guido yet a second time	H2
Satan's old saw being apt here skin for skin	E2
All a man hath that will he give for life	K2
While life was graspable and gainable free	M
To bird like buzz her wings round Guido's brow	E2
Not much truth stiffened out the web of words	F3
He wove to catch her when away she flew	M
And death came death's breath rivelled up the lies	F3
Left bare the metal thread the fibre fine	E2
Of truth i' the spinning the true words come last	J
How Guido to another purpose quite	J
Speaks and despairs the last night of his life	K2
In that New Prison by Castle Angelo	M
At the bridge foot the same man another voice	F3
On a stone bench in a close fetid cell	M
Where the hot vapour of an agony	M
Struck into drops on the cold wall runs down	E2
Horrible worms made out of sweat and tears	F3
There crouch well nigh to the knees in dungeon straw	M
Lit by the sole lamp suffered for their sake	K4
Two awe struck figures this a Cardinal	M
That an Abate both of old styled friends	F3
Of the part man part monster in the midst	J
So changed is Franceschini's gentle blood	J
The tiger cat screams now that whined before	O3
That pried and tried and trod so gingerly	M
Till in its silkiness the trap teeth join	E2
Then you know how the bristling fury foams	F3
They listen this wrapped in his folds of red	J
While his feet fumble for the filth below	M
The other as beseems a stouter heart	J
Working his best with beads and cross to ban	E2
The enemy that comes in like a flood	J
Spite of the standard set up verily	M
And in no trope at all against him there	O3
For at the prison gate just a few steps	F3
Outside already in the doubtful dawn	E2
Thither from this side and from that slow sweep	J
And settle down in silence solidly	M
Crow wise the frightful Brotherhood of Death	T2
Black hatted and black hooded huddle they	J
Black rosaries a dangling from each waist	J
So take they their grim station at the door	O3
Torches alight and cross bones banner spread	J
And that gigantic Christ with open arms	F3
Grounded Nor lacks there aught but that the group	J
Break forth intone the lamentable psalm	H2
Out of the deeps Lord have I cried to thee	M
When inside from the true profound a sign	E2
Shall bear intelligence that the foe is foiled	J
Count Guido Franceschini has confessed	J
And is absolved and reconciled with God	J
Then they intoning may begin their march	U4
Make by the longest way for the People's Square	O3
Carry the criminal to his crime's reward	J
A mob to cleave a scaffolding to reach	U4
Two gallows and Mannaia crowning all	M
Now Guido made defence a second time	H2
	-
Finally even as thus by step and step	J
I led you from the level of to day	J
Up to the summit of so long ago	M
Here whence I point you the wide prospect round	J
Let me by like steps slope you back to smooth	T2
Land you on mother earth no whit the worse	F3
To feed o' the fat o' the furrow free to dwell	M
Taste our time's better things profusely spread	J
For all who love the level corn and wine	E2
Much cattle and the many folded fleece	F3
Shall not my friends go feast again on sward	J
Though cognisant of country in the clouds	F3
Higher than wistful eagle's horny eye	J
Ever unclosed for 'mid ancestral crags	F3
When morning broke and Spring was back once more	O3
And he died heaven save by his heart unreached	J
Yet heaven my fancy lifts to ladder like	A3
As Jack reached holpen of his beanstalk rungs	F3
	-
A novel country I might make it mine	E2
By choosing which one aspect of the year	O3
Suited mood best and putting solely that	J
On panel somewhere in the House of Fame	H2
Landscaping what I saved not what I saw	F3
Might fix you whether frost in goblin time	H2
Startled the moon with his abrupt bright laugh	K2
Or August's hair afloat in filmy fire	O3
She fell arms wide face foremost on the world	J
Swooned there and so singed out the strength of things	F3
Thus were abolished Spring and Autumn both	T2
The land dwarfed to one likeness of the land	J
Life cramped corpse fashion Rather learn and love	K2
Each facet flash of the revolving year	O3
Red green and blue that whirl into a white	J
The variance now the eventual unity	J
Which make the miracle See it for yourselves	F3
This man's act changeable because alive	K2
Action now shrouds now shows the informing thought	J
Man like a glass ball with a spark a top	J
Out of the magic fire that lurks inside	J
Shows one tint at a time to take the eye	J
Which let a finger touch the silent sleep	J
Shifted a hair's breadth shoots you dark for bright	J
Suffuses bright with dark and baffles so	F3
Your sentence absolute for shine or shade	J
Once set such orbs white styled black stigmatised	J
A rolling see them once on the other side	J
Your good men and your bad men every one	E2
From Guido Franceschini to Guy Faux	F3
Oft would you rub your eyes and change your names	F3
	-
Such British Public ye who like me not	J
God love you whom I yet have laboured for	O3
Perchance more careful whoso runs may read	J
Than erst when all it seemed could read who ran	E2
Perchance more careless whoso reads may praise	F3
Than late when he who praised and read and wrote	J
Was apt to find himself the self same me	J
Such labour had such issue so I wrought	J
This arc by furtherance of such alloy	M
And so by one spirt take away its trace	F3
Till justifiably golden rounds my ring	A
	-
A ring without a posy and that ring mine	E2
	-
O lyric Love half angel and half bird	J
And all a wonder and a wild desire	O3
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun	E2
Took sanctuary within the holier blue	M
And sang a kindred soul out to his face	F3
Yet human at the red ripe of the heart	J
When the first summons from the darkling earth	T2
Reached thee amid thy chambers blanched their blue	M
And bared them of the glory to drop down	E2
To toil for man to suffer or to die	J
This is the same voice can thy soul know change	Q2
Hail then and hearken from the realms of help	J
Never may I commence my song my due	M
To God who best taught song by gift of thee	J
Except with bent head and beseeching hand	J
That still despite the distance and the dark
What was again may be some interchange	Q2
Of grace some splendour once thy very thought	J
Some benediction anciently thy smile	M
Never conclude but raising hand and head	J
Thither where eyes that cannot reach yet yearn	E2
For all hope all sustainment all reward	J
Their utmost up and on so blessing back	Q4
In those thy realms of help that heaven thy home	H2
Some whiteness which I judge thy face makes proud	J
Some wanness where I think thy foot may fall	M

Robert Browning

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