Is it the same Sordello in the dusk As at the dawn? merely a perished husk Now, that arose a power fit to build Up Rome again? The proud conception chilled So soon? Ay, watch that latest dream of thine...
Who will, may hear Sordello's story told: His story? Who believes me shall behold The man, pursue his fortunes to the end, Like me: for as the friendless-people's friend...
Meantime Ferrara lay in rueful case; The lady-city, for whose sole embrace Her pair of suitors struggled, felt their arms A brawny mischief to the fragile charms They tugged for one discovering that to twist...
The woods were long austere with snow: at last Pink leaflets budded on the beech, and fast Larches, scattered through pine-tree solitudes, Brightened, "as in the slumbrous heart o' the woods...
The thought of Eglamor's least like a thought, And yet a false one, was, "Man shrinks to nought "If matched with symbols of immensity; "Must quail, forsooth, before a quiet sky...
And the font took them: let our laurels lie! Braid moonfern now with mystic trifoly Because once more Goito gets, once more, Sordello to itself! A dream is o'er, And the suspended life begins anew;...
Others may need new life in Heaven, Man, Nature, Art, made new, assume! Man with new mind old sense to leaven, Nature, new light to clear old gloom, Art that breaks bounds, gets soaring-room. ...
No protesting, dearest! Hardly kisses even! Don't we both know how it ends? How the greenest leaf turns serest, Bluest outbreak, blankest heaven, Lovers, friends?
All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee: All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem: In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea: ...
True, Excellency as his Highness says, Though she's not dead yet, she's as good as stretched Symmetrical beside the other two; Though he's not judged yet, he's the same as judged,...
He was the man, Pope Sixtus, that Fifth, that swineherd's son: He knew the right thing, did it, and thanked God when 't was done: But of all he had to thank for, my fancy somehow leans...
Vanity, saith the preacher, vanity! Draw round my bed: is Anselm keeping back? Nephews, sons mine . . . ah God, I know not! Well, She, men would have to be your mother once,...
Here were the end, had anything an end: Thus, lit and launched, up and up roared and soared A rocket, till the key o' the vault was reached, And wide heaven held, a breathless minute-space,...
It is a lie, their Priests, their Pope, Their Saints, their . . . all they fear or hope Are lies, and lies, there! through my door And ceiling, there! and walls and floor,...
Fort', Fort', my beloved one, Sit here by my side, On my knees put up both little feet! I was sure, if I tried, I could make you laugh spite of Scirocco:...
You're my friend: I was the man the Duke spoke to; I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too; So here's the tale from beginning to end, My friend!