Volume IV Part 18 (1/2)

XIII.

Modena, Parma, Bologna, Florence, Open us out the wider way!

Dwarf in that chapel of old Saint Lawrence Your Michel Angelo's giant Day, With the grandeur of this Day breaking o'er us!

XIV.

Ye who, restrained as an ancient chorus, Mute while the coryphaeus spake, Hush your separate voices before us, Sink your separate lives for the sake Of one sole Italy's living for ever!

XV.

Givers of coat and cloak too,--never Grudging that purple of yours at the best, By your heroic will and endeavour Each sublimely dispossessed, That all may inherit what each surrenders!

XVI.

Earth shall bless you, O n.o.ble emenders On egotist nations! Ye shall lead The plough of the world, and sow new splendours Into the furrow of things for seed,-- Ever the richer for what ye have given.

XVII.

Lead us and teach us, till earth and heaven Grow larger around us and higher above.

Our sacrament-bread has a bitter leaven; We bait our traps with the name of love, Till hate itself has a kinder meaning.

XVIII.

Oh, this world: this cheating and screening Of cheats! this conscience for candle-wicks, Not beacon-fires! this overweening Of underhand diplomatical tricks, Dared for the country while scorned for the counter!

XIX.

Oh, this envy of those who mount here, And oh, this malice to make them trip!

Rather quenching the fire there, drying the fount here, To frozen body and thirsty lip, Than leave to a neighbour their ministration.

XX.

I cry aloud in my poet-pa.s.sion, Viewing my England o'er Alp and sea.

I loved her more in her ancient fas.h.i.+on: She carries her rifles too thick for me Who spares them so in the cause of a brother.

XXI.

Suspicion, panic? end this pother.

The sword, kept sheathless at peace-time, rusts.

None fears for himself while he feels for another: The brave man either fights or trusts, And wears no mail in his private chamber.

XXII.

Beautiful Italy! golden amber Warm with the kisses of lover and traitor!

Thou who hast drawn us on to remember, Draw us to hope now: let us be greater By this new future than that old story.

XXIII.