Then farewell, king, yet were I one, Care would not come so soon. Would he and I were far away Keeping flocks on Himalay! FRAGMENT: PEACE FIRST AND LAST. THE babe is at peace within the womb, FRAGMENT: WANDERING. HE wanders (like a day-appearing dream, GINEVRA.1 WILD, pale, and wonder-stricken, even as one Fancying strange comments in her dizzy brain 1 The story on which this fragment is based is to be found in a book entitled L'Osservatore Fiorentino. -ED. Ginevra from the nuptial altar went; The vows to which her lips had sworn assent 10 Rung in her brain still with a jarring din, Deafening the lost intelligence within. And so she moved under the bridal veil, Which made the paleness of her cheek more pale, And deepened the faint crimson of her mouth, And darkened her dark locks, as moonlight doth, And of the gold and jewels glittering there Vexing the sense with gorgeous undelight. 20 The bride-maidens who round her thronging came, 30 Some with a sense of self-rebuke and shame, Their own by gentle sympathy; and some thing Bitter to taste, sweet in imagining. But they are all dispersed-and, lo! she stands 40 Looking in idle grief on her white hands, And said "Is this thy faith?" and then as one 50 Whose sleeping face is stricken by the sun rise And look upon his day of life with eyes Which weep in vain that they can dream no more, Ginevra saw her lover, and forbore To shriek or faint, and checked the stifling Rushing upon her heart, and unsubdued 61 The victim from the tyrant, and divides That is another's, could dissever ours, ས་ r We love not."- "What! do not the silent hours Beckon thee to Gherardi's bridal bed? said, 66 70 -a pledge, he would have Of broken vows, but she with patient look Does it not sound as if they sweetly said We toll a corpse out of the marriage bed?' Had made her accents weaker and more weak, 90 Making her but an image of the thought, tance Would share, he cannot now avert, the sen tence Antonio stood and would have spoken, when The compound voice of women and of men Was heard approaching; he retired, whilst she Was led amid the admiring company Back to the palace,—and her maidens soon 100 Changed her attire for the afternoon, Meanwhile the day sinks fast, the sun is set, And in the lighted hall the guests are met; The beautiful looked lovelier in the light Of love, and admiration, and delight Reflected from a thousand hearts and eyes Kindling a momentary Paradise. This crowd is safer than the silent wood, 120 clime: How many meet, who never yet have met, To part too soon, but never to forget. How many saw the beauty, power and wit Of looks and words which ne'er enchanted yet; But life's familiar veil was now withdrawn, As the world leaps before an earthquake's dawn, And, unprophetic of the coming hours, The matin winds from the expanded flowers Scatter their hoarded incense, and awaken The earth, until the dewy sleep is shaken From every living heart which it possesses, Through seas and winds,' cities and wilder nesses, As if the future and the past were all Treasured i' the instant;-so Gherardi's hall Laughed in the mirth of its lord's festival, 130 Probably we should read lands instead of winds; but I know of no authority for the change.—ED. |