From the north Alps to the Sicilian tide!
Ay! fallen, though the nations hail thee Queen
Because rich gold in every town is seen,
And on thy sapphire-lake in tossing pride
Of wind-filled vans thy
myriadgalleys ride
Beneath one flag of red and white and green.
O Fair and Strong! O Strong and Fair in vain!
Look
southward where Rome's desecrated town
Lies
mourning for her God-anointed King!
Look heaven-ward! shall God allow this thing?
Nay! but some flame-girt Raphael shall come down,
And smite the Spoiler with the sword of pain.
VENICE.
Poem: Holy Week At Genoa
I
wandered through Scoglietto's far retreat,
The oranges on each o'erhanging spray
Burned as bright lamps of gold to shame the day;
Some startled bird with fluttering wings and fleet
Made snow of all the blossoms; at my feet
Like silver moons the pale narcissi lay:
And the curved waves that streaked the great green bay
Laughed i' the sun, and life seemed very sweet.
Outside the young boy-
priest passed singing clear,
'Jesus the son of Mary has been slain,
O come and fill His sepulchre with flowers.'
Ah, God! Ah, God! those dear Hellenic hours
Had drowned all memory of Thy bitter pain,
The Cross, the Crown, the Soldiers and the Spear.
Poem: Rome Unvisited
I.
The corn has turned from grey to red,
Since first my spirit
wandered forth
From the drear cities of the north,
And to Italia's mountains fled.
And here I set my face towards home,
For all my
pilgrimage" target="_blank" title="n.朝圣;远游;人生历程">
pilgrimage is done,
Although,
methinks, yon blood-red sun
Marshals the way to Holy Rome.
O Blessed Lady, who dost hold
Upon the seven hills thy reign!
O Mother without blot or stain,
Crowned with bright crowns of
triple gold!
O Roma, Roma, at thy feet
I lay this
barren gift of song!
For, ah! the way is steep and long
That leads unto thy
sacred street.
II.
And yet what joy it were for me
To turn my feet unto the south,
And journeying towards the Tiber mouth
To kneel again at Fiesole!
And
wandering through the tangled pines
That break the gold of Arno's stream,
To see the
purple mist and gleam
Of morning on the Apennines
By many a vineyard-hidden home,
Orchard and olive-garden grey,
Till from the drear Campagna's way
The seven hills bear up the dome!
III.
A
pilgrim from the northern seas -
What joy for me to seek alone
The
wondroustemple and the
throneOf him who holds the awful keys!
When, bright with
purple and with gold
Come
priest and holy cardinal,
And borne above the heads of all
The gentle Shepherd of the Fold.
O joy to see before I die
The only God-anointed king,
And hear the silver trumpets ring
A
triumph as he passes by!
Or at the brazen-pillared shrine
Holds high the
mystic sacrifice,
And shows his God to human eyes
Beneath the veil of bread and wine.
IV.
For lo, what changes time can bring!
The cycles of revolving years
May free my heart from all its fears,
And teach my lips a song to sing.
Before yon field of trembling gold
Is
garnered into dusty sheaves,
Or ere the autumn's
scarlet leaves
Flutter as birds adown the wold,
I may have run the
glorious race,
And caught the torch while yet aflame,
And called upon the holy name
Of Him who now doth hide His face.
ARONA.
Poem: Urbs Sacra Aeterna
Rome! what a
scroll of History thine has been;
In the first days thy sword republican
Ruled the whole world for many an age's span:
Then of the peoples wert thou royal Queen,
Till in thy streets the bearded Goth was seen;
And now upon thy walls the breezes fan
(Ah, city crowned by God, discrowned by man!)
The hated flag of red and white and green.
When was thy glory! when in search for power
Thine eagles flew to greet the double sun,
And the wild nations shuddered at thy rod?
Nay, but thy glory tarried for this hour,
When
pilgrims kneel before the Holy One,
The prisoned
shepherd of the Church of God.
MONTRE MARIO.
Poem: Sonnet On Hearing The Dies Irae Sung In The Sistine Chapel
Nay, Lord, not thus! white lilies in the spring,
Sad olive-groves, or silver-breasted dove,
Teach me more clearly of Thy life and love
Than terrors of red flame and thundering.
The
hillside vines dear memories of Thee bring:
A bird at evening flying to its nest
Tells me of One who had no place of rest:
I think it is of Thee the sparrows sing.
Come rather on some autumn afternoon,
When red and brown are burnished on the leaves,
And the fields echo to the gleaner's song,
Come when the splendid fulness of the moon
Looks down upon the rows of golden sheaves,
And reap Thy
harvest: we have waited long.
Poem: Easter Day
The silver trumpets rang across the Dome:
The people knelt upon the ground with awe:
And borne upon the necks of men I saw,
Like some great God, the Holy Lord of Rome.
Priest-like, he wore a robe more white than foam,
And, king-like, swathed himself in royal red,
Three crowns of gold rose high upon his head:
In splendour and in light the Pope passed home.
My heart stole back across wide wastes of years
To One who
wandered by a
lonely sea,
And sought in vain for any place of rest:
'Foxes have holes, and every bird its nest.
I, only I, must
wander wearily,
And
bruise my feet, and drink wine salt with tears.'
Poem: E Tenebris
Come down, O Christ, and help me! reach Thy hand,
For I am drowning in a stormier sea
Than Simon on Thy lake of Galilee:
The wine of life is spilt upon the sand,
My heart is as some famine-murdered land
Whence all good things have perished utterly,
And well I know my soul in Hell must lie
If I this night before God's
throne should stand.
'He sleeps
perchance, or rideth to the chase,
Like Baal, when his prophets howled that name
From morn to noon on Carmel's
smitten height.'
Nay, peace, I shall behold, before the night,
The feet of brass, the robe more white than flame,
The wounded hands, the weary human face.
Poem: Vita Nuova
I stood by the unvintageable sea
Till the wet waves drenched face and hair with spray;
The long red fires of the dying day
Burned in the west; the wind piped drearily;
And to the land the
clamorous gulls did flee:
'Alas!' I cried, 'my life is full of pain,
And who can
garner fruit or golden grain
From these waste fields which travail ceaselessly!'
My nets gaped wide with many a break and flaw,
Nathless I threw them as my final cast
Into the sea, and waited for the end.
When lo! a sudden glory! and I saw
From the black waters of my tortured past
The argent splendour of white limbs ascend!
Poem: Madonna Mia
A lily-girl, not made for this world's pain,
With brown, soft hair close braided by her ears,
And
longing eyes half veiled by slumberous tears
Like bluest water seen through mists of rain:
Pale cheeks
whereon no love hath left its stain,
Red underlip drawn in for fear of love,
And white
throat, whiter than the silvered dove,
Through whose wan
marble creeps one
purple vein.
Yet, though my lips shall praise her without cease,
Even to kiss her feet I am not bold,
Being o'ershadowed by the wings of awe,
Like Dante, when he stood with Beatrice
Beneath the
flaming Lion's breast, and saw
The seventh Crystal, and the Stair of Gold.
Poem: The New Helen
Where hast thou been since round the walls of Troy
The sons of God fought in that great emprise?
Why dost thou walk our common earth again?
Hast thou forgotten that im
passioned boy,
His
purplegalley and his Tyrian men
And
treacherous Aphrodite's mocking eyes?
For surely it was thou, who, like a star
Hung in the silver silence of the night,
Didst lure the Old World's
chivalry and might
Into the
clamorouscrimson waves of war!
Or didst thou rule the fire-laden moon?
In amorous Sidon was thy
temple built
Over the light and
laughter of the sea
Where, behind lattice
scarlet-wrought and gilt,
Some brown-limbed girl did weave thee tapestry,
All through the waste and wearied hours of noon;
Till her wan cheek with flame of
passion burned,
And she rose up the sea-washed lips to kiss
Of some glad Cyprian sailor, safe returned