FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208  
209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   >>   >|  
e right to vindicate, the weak redress; And now, when gratitude, When piety appeal, shall she do less To avenge the injury and end the scorn By blessed Mary's glorious offspring borne? What fear we, while the heathen for success Confide in human powers, If, on the adverse side, be Christ, and his side ours? Turn, too, when Xerxes our free shores to tread Rush'd in hot haste, and dream'd the perilous main With scourge and fetter to chastise and chain, --What see'st? Wild wailing o'er their husbands dead, Persia's pale matrons wrapt in weeds of woe, And red with gore the gulf of Salamis! To prove our triumph certain, to foreshow The utter ruin of our Eastern foe, No single instance this; Miltiades and Marathon recall, See, with his patriot few, Leonidas Closing, Thermopylae, thy bloody pass! Like them to dare and do, to God let all With heart and knee bow down, Who for our arms and age has kept this great renown. Thou shalt see Italy, that honour'd land, Which from my eyes, O Song! nor seas, streams, heights, So long have barr'd and bann'd, But love alone, who with his haughty lights The more allures me as he worse excites, Till nature fails against his constant wiles. Go then, and join thy comrades; not alone Beneath fair female zone Dwells Love, who, at his will, moves us to tears or smiles. MACGREGOR. CANZONE III. _Verdi panni, sanguigni, oscuri o persi._ WHETHER OR NOT HE SHOULD CEASE TO LOVE LAURA. Green robes and red, purple, or brown, or gray No lady ever wore, Nor hair of gold in sunny tresses twined, So beautiful as she, who spoils my mind Of judgment, and from freedom's lofty path So draws me with her that I may not bear Any less heavy yoke. And if indeed at times--for wisdom fails Where martyrdom breeds doubt-- The soul should ever arm it to complain Suddenly from each reinless rude desire Her smile recalls, and razes from my heart Every rash enterprise, while all disdain Is soften'd in her sight. For all that I have ever borne for love, And still am doom'd to bear, Till she who wounded it shall heal my heart, Rejecting homage e'en while she invites, Be vengeance done! but let not pride nor ire 'Gainst my humility the lovely pass By which I enter'd bar.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208  
209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

oscuri

 

WHETHER

 

CANZONE

 

sanguigni

 

invites

 

purple

 
MACGREGOR
 

vengeance

 

SHOULD

 

comrades


lovely
 

humility

 

constant

 

Beneath

 

female

 

Gainst

 

Dwells

 

smiles

 
breeds
 

martyrdom


soften

 
wisdom
 

enterprise

 

recalls

 

desire

 
Suddenly
 

complain

 
disdain
 

reinless

 

Rejecting


tresses

 

twined

 

beautiful

 

homage

 

spoils

 

wounded

 

judgment

 
freedom
 

perilous

 

fetter


scourge
 
Xerxes
 

shores

 
chastise
 
Persia
 
matrons
 

husbands

 

wailing

 

Christ

 

appeal