XVIII.

Or, while by thee, eternal Arno! straying,

Felt that dim prescience of power, that thirst
Of Fame, which from that hour knows no allaying;

Thy myrtles bloom as when he plucked them first:
Still like a giant from its fetters burst,

The Duomo soars; and close, as from it riven,

That fairy tower within its shadow nursed!

Still the heart, answering, owns those "gates of heaven;"

And yonder princely shrine to Art's bright triad given.

XIX.

Forum of Florence! Sculpture's rays which shed

Light o'er old Athens, here in marble glow:

There, Neptune towers-his Tritons round him spread:
Here, rears Alcides o'er his fallen foe

His giant height-suspending yet the blow;
There, stands triumphant Perseus; in his hand
The head just severed from the trunk below:
Still those wide-glaring eyes in death expand;

Still writhes that shrunken form upon the bloody sand.

XX.

A very masterpiece of bronzèd life ;

And near,

the Sabine rape: the Roman bears

Aloft, from him who vanquished yields the strife,
Woman-best, noblest prize for him who dares!
In vain the semblance of remorse she wears,
Valour ne'er sued to Beauty and in vain!

Turn, where yon champion on his war-horse rears; 'Tis Cosmo, he who fixed his Country's chain, Twined with the laurels plucked upon Sienna's Plain.

XXI.

And this is life-the tyrant who would hide
Deeds to which shrinking nature gives no name,

Crowned by false fortune, is by death allied
With those who share eternity of fame;

Than he, the meanest slave hath worthier claim;
But Time, at last, is just: yon grey Tower stands
Sole record of his now forgotten shame;

His house and tomb have passed to strangers' hands; Enter Art's shrine-the Goddess ruling there, commands.

XXII.

The Idol of all nations, time, and clime,

Whose worship shall endure for ever! Love,
Raising from self each sordid thought sublime :
Awakening, yea, creating soul, to prove
Its immortality, that vainly strove

To pour forth in expression the deep feeling,
Whose inspiration kindled from above,

Embodied forth that form divine, revealing

All the full heart hath dreamed within its depths con

cealing.

XXIII.

So stands the Venus, living, breathing there!

Grace, like the light, irradiates her head,

Casting a very halo on the air:

While, on the gazing eye and heart, is shed

That sense of adoration which is fed

When language faints to tell the load we feel;

How love and purity, with wings outspread,

O'ershade that brow which calls on us to kneel;

How does that neck, as once, the immortal Power reveal!

XXIV.

And in her Form, so femininely bending,

So delicate and yet so dignified,

The woman and the goddess are contending;

The innocence with its repellent pride!

All beauties in that shape beatified,

Swelling the whole, make music to the eye,

The music of expression! till allied

Our hearts by her pervading harmony,

We feel the power of love Life's ruling destiny.

XXV.

If thou hast ever fondly, deeply loved,

If thy own being was forgot in this

Abstraction of all self, which thou hast proved,
Whose unrepaid devotion was its bliss;

Whose aching want itself was happiness,

Thou hast beheld that form-she is the same

To which thou, falling prostrate, would'st confess Thy hopes, thy ardent thoughts, thy wasting flame, All the vast power of Love which doth the mighty tame.

XXVI.

But where art thou, Prometheus of the past?
Thou who hast bound the future to thy shrine?
Thy hand is in the dust of ages cast:

Yet should'st not thou our common lot repine,
Thou, who didst body a form more divine

Than e'er shaped Nature in her happiest mood;
Wrapt in her life, we cease to think of thine:
But this is ever man's ingratitude,

The giver is forgot, when still is grasped the good.

XXVII.

The Niobe-the majesty of woe!

Awing the mind to veneration; how

Her grief-struck form succumbs beneath the blow!

Yet does that noblest attitude avow

The mother unforgotten still! her brow

Is raised to heaven beseechingly in vain ;

Her hand still guards her youngest hope, which now Her arm with passionate fondness would retain, But-ere the robe enfolds-her latest love is slain.