Robert Browning - Delphi Poets Series

by Robert Browning

  “And dew, outlining the black cypress’ spire

  “She waits you at, Elys, who heard you first

  “Woo her, the snow-month through, but ere she durst

  “Answer ‘t was April. Linden-flower-time-long

  “Her eyes were on the ground; ‘t is July, strong

  “Now; and because white dust-clouds overwhelm

  “The woodside, here or by the village elm

  “That holds the moon, she meets you, somewhat pale,

  “But letting you lift up her coarse flax veil

  “And whisper (the damp little hand in yours)

  “Of love, heart’s love, your heart’s love that endures

  “Till death. Tush! No mad mixing with the rout

  “Of haggard ribalds wandering about

  “The hot torchlit wine-scented island-house

  “Where Friedrich holds his wickedest carouse,

  “Parading, — to the gay Palermitans,

  “Soft Messinese, dusk Saracenic clans

  “Nuocera holds, — those tall grave dazzling Norse,

  “High-cheeked, lank-haired, toothed whiter than the morse,

  “Queens of the caves of jet stalactites,

  “He sent his barks to fetch through icy seas,

  “The blind night seas without a saving star,

  “And here in snowy birdskin robes they are,

  “Sordello! — here, mollitious alcoves gilt

  “Superb as Byzant domes that devils built!

  “ — Ah, Byzant, there again! no chance to go

  “Ever like august cheery Dandolo,

  “Worshipping hearts about him for a wall,

  “Conducted, blind eyes, hundred years and all,

  “Through vanquished Byzant where friends note for him

  “What pillar, marble massive, sardius slim,

  “‘T were fittest he transport to Venice’ Square —

  “Flattered and promised life to touch them there

  “Soon, by those fervid sons of senators!

  “No more lifes, deaths, loves, hatreds, peaces, wars!

  “Ah, fragments of a whole ordained to be,

  “Points in the life I waited! what are ye

  “But roundels of a ladder which appeared

  “Awhile the very platform it was reared

  “To lift me on? — that happiness I find

  “Proofs of my faith in, even in the blind

  “Instinct which bade forego you all unless

  “Ye led me past yourselves. Ay, happiness

  “Awaited me; the way life should be used

  “Was to acquire, and deeds like you conduced

  “To teach it by a self-revealment, deemed

  “Life’s very use, so long! Whatever seemed

  “Progress to that, was pleasure; aught that stayed

  “My reaching it — no pleasure. I have laid

  “The ladder down; I climb not; still, aloft

  “The platform stretches! Blisses strong and soft,

  “I dared not entertain, elude me; yet

  “Never of what they promised could I get

  “A glimpse till now! The common sort, the crowd,

  “Exist, perceive; with Being are endowed,

  “However slight, distinct from what they See,

  “However bounded; Happiness must be,

  “To feed the first by gleanings from the last,

  “Attain its qualities, and slow or fast

  “Become what they behold; such peace-in-strife,

  “By transmutation, is the Use of Life,

  “The Alien turning Native to the soul

  “Or body — which instructs me; I am whole

  “There and demand a Palma; had the world

  “Been from my soul to a like distance hurled,

  “‘T were Happiness to make it one with me:

  “Whereas I must, ere I begin to Be,

  “Include a world, in flesh, I comprehend

  “In spirit now; and this done, what ‘s to blend

  “With? Nought is Alien in the world — my Will

  “Owns all already; yet can turn it — still

  “Less — Native, since my Means to correspond

  “With Will are so unworthy, ‘t was my bond

  “To tread the very joys that tantalize

  “Most now, into a grave, never to rise.

  “I die then! Will the rest agree to die?

  “Next Age or no? Shall its Sordello try

  “Clue after clue, and catch at last the clue

  “I miss? — that ‘s underneath my finger too,

  “Twice, thrice a day, perhaps, — some yearning traced

  “Deeper, some petty consequence embraced

  “Closer! Why fled I Mantua, then? — complained

  “So much my Will was fettered, yet remained

  “Content within a tether half the range

  “I could assign it? — able to exchange

  “My ignorance (I felt) for knowledge, and

  “Idle because I could thus understand —

  “Could e’en have penetrated to its core

  “Our mortal mystery, yet — fool — forbore,

  “Preferred elaborating in the dark

  “My casual stuff, by any wretched spark

  “Born of my predecessors, though one stroke

  “Of mine had brought the flame forth! Mantua’s yoke,

  “My minstrel’s-trade, was to behold mankind, —

  “My own concern was just to bring my mind

  “Behold, just extricate, for my acquist,

  “Each object suffered stifle in the mist

  “Which hazard, custom, blindness interpose

  “Betwixt things and myself.”

  Whereat he rose.

  The level wind carried above the firs

  Clouds, the irrevocable travellers,

  Onward.

  ”Pushed thus into a drowsy copse,

  “Arms twine about my neck, each eyelid drops

  “Under a humid finger; while there fleets,

  “Outside the screen, a pageant time repeats

  “Never again! To be deposed, immured

  “Clandestinely — still petted, still assured

  “To govern were fatiguing work — the Sight

  “Fleeting meanwhile! ‘T is noontide: wreak ere night

  “Somehow my will upon it, rather! Slake

  “This thirst somehow, the poorest impress take

  “That serves! A blasted bud displays you, torn,

  “Faint rudiments of the full flower unborn;

  “But who divines what glory coats o’erclasp

  “Of the bulb dormant in the mummy’s grasp

  “Taurello sent?” . . .

  ”Taurello? Palma sent

  “Your Trouvere,” (Naddo interposing leant

  Over the lost bard’s shoulder) — ”and, believe,

  “You cannot more reluctantly receive

  “Than I pronounce her message: we depart

  “Together. What avail a poet’s heart

  “Verona’s pomps and gauds? five blades of grass

  “Suffice him. News? Why, where your marish was,

  “On its mud-banks smoke rises after smoke

  “I’ the valley, like a spout of hell new-broke.

  “Oh, the world’s tidings! small your thanks, I guess,

  “For them. The father of our Patroness,

  “Has played Taurello an astounding trick,

  “Parts between Ecelin and Alberic

  “His wealth and goes into a convent: both

  “Wed Guelfs: the Count and Palma plighted troth

  “A week since at Verona: and they want

  “You doubtless to contrive the marriage-chant

  “Ere Richard storms Ferrara.” Then was told

  The tale from the beginning — how, made bold

  By Salinguerra’s absence, Guelfs had burned

  And pillaged till he
unawares returned

  To take revenge: how Azzo and his friend

  Were doing their endeavour, how the end

  O’ the siege was nigh, and how the Count, released

  From further care, would with his marriage-feast

  Inaugurate a new and better rule,

  Absorbing thus Romano.

  ”Shall I school

  “My master,” added Naddo, “and suggest

  “How you may clothe in a poetic vest

  “These doings, at Verona? Your response

  “To Palma! Wherefore jest? ‘Depart at once?

  “A good resolve! In truth, I hardly hoped

  “So prompt an acquiescence. Have you groped

  “Out wisdom in the wilds here? — thoughts may be

  “Over-poetical for poetry.

  “Pearl-white, you poets liken Palma’s neck;

  “And yet what spoils an orient like some speck

  “Of genuine white, turning its own white grey?

  “You take me? Curse the cicala!”

  One more day,

  One eve — appears Verona! Many a group,

  (You mind) instructed of the osprey’s swoop

  On lynx and ounce, was gathering — Christendom

  Sure to receive, whate’er the end was, from

  The evening’s purpose cheer or detriment,

  Since Friedrich only waited some event

  Like this, of Ghibellins establishing

  Themselves within Ferrara, ere, as King

  Of Lombardy, he ‘d glad descend there, wage

  Old warfare with the Pontiff, disengage

  His barons from the burghers, and restore

  The rule of Charlemagne, broken of yore

  By Hildebrand.

  I’ the palace, each by each,

  Sordello sat and Palma: little speech

  At first in that dim closet, face with face

  (Despite the tumult in the market-place)

  Exchanging quick low laughters: now would rush

  Word upon word to meet a sudden flush,

  A look left off, a shifting lips’ surmise —

  But for the most part their two histories

  Ran best thro’ the locked fingers and linked arms.

  And so the night flew on with its alarms

  Till in burst one of Palma’s retinue;

  “Now, Lady!” gasped he. Then arose the two

  And leaned into Verona’s air, dead-still.

  A balcony lay black beneath until

  Out, ‘mid a gush of torchfire, grey-haired men

  Came on it and harangued the people: then

  Sea-like that people surging to and fro

  Shouted, “Hale forth the carroch — trumpets, ho,

  “A flourish! Run it in the ancient grooves!

  “Back from the bell! Hammer — that whom behoves

  “May hear the League is up! Peal — learn who list,

  “Verona means not first of towns break tryst

  “To-morrow with the League!”

  Enough. Now turn —

  Over the eastern cypresses: discern!

  Is any beacon set a-glimmer?

  Rang

  The air with shouts that overpowered the clang

  Of the incessant carroch, even: “Haste —

  “The candle ‘s at the gateway! ere it waste,

  “Each soldier stand beside it, armed to march

  “With Tiso Sampier through the eastern arch!”

  Ferrara’s succoured, Palma!

  Once again

  They sat together; some strange thing in train

  To say, so difficult was Palma’s place

  In taking, with a coy fastidious grace

  Like the bird’s flutter ere it fix and feed.

  But when she felt she held her friend indeed

  Safe, she threw back her curls, began implant

  Her lessons; telling of another want

  Goito’s quiet nourished than his own;

  Palma — to serve him — to be served, alone

  Importing; Agnes’ milk so neutralized

  The blood of Ecelin. Nor be surprised

  If, while Sordello fain had captive led

  Nature, in dream was Palma subjected

  To some out-soul, which dawned not though she pined

  Delaying, till its advent, heart and mind

  Their life. “How dared I let expand the force

  “Within me, till some out-soul, whose resource

  “It grew for, should direct it? Every law

  “Of life, its every fitness, every flaw,

  “Must One determine whose corporeal shape

  “Would be no other than the prime escape

  “And revelation to me of a Will

  “Orb-like o’ershrouded and inscrutable

  “Above, save at the point which, I should know,

  “Shone that myself, my powers, might overflow

  “So far, so much; as now it signified

  “Which earthly shape it henceforth chose my guide,

  “Whose mortal lip selected to declare

  “Its oracles, what fleshly garb would wear

  “ — The first of intimations, whom to love;

  “The next, how love him. Seemed that orb, above

  “The castle-covert and the mountain-close,

  “Slow in appearing? — if beneath it rose

  “Cravings, aversions, — did our green precinct

  “Take pride in me, at unawares distinct

  “With this or that endowment, — how, repressed

  “At once, such jetting power shrank to the rest!

  “Was I to have a chance touch spoil me, leave

  “My spirit thence unfitted to receive

  “The consummating spell? — that spell so near

  “Moreover! ‘Waits he not the waking year?

  “‘His almond-blossoms must be honey-ripe

  “‘By this; to welcome him, fresh runnels stripe

  “‘The thawed ravines; because of him, the wind

  “‘Walks like a herald. I shall surely find

  “‘Him now!’

  ”And chief, that earnest April morn

  “Of Richard’s Love-court, was it time, so worn

  “And white my cheek, so idly my blood beat,

  “Sitting that morn beside the Lady’s feet

  “And saying as she prompted; till outburst

  “One face from all the faces. Not then first

  “I knew it; where in maple chamber glooms,

  “Crowned with what sanguine-heart pomegranate blooms,

  “Advanced it ever? Men’s acknowledgment

  “Sanctioned my own: ‘t was taken, Palma’s bent, —

  “Sordello, — recognized, accepted.

  “Dumb

  “Sat she still scheming. Ecelin would come

  “Gaunt, scared, ‘Cesano baffles me,’ he ‘d say:

  “‘Better I fought it out, my father’s way!

  “‘Strangle Ferrara in its drowning flats,

  “‘And you and your Taurello yonder! — what’s

  “‘Romano’s business there?’ An hour’s concern

  “To cure the froward Chief! — induce return

  “As heartened from those overmeaning eyes,

  “Wound up to persevere, — his enterprise

  “Marked out anew, its exigent of wit

  “Apportioned, — she at liberty to sit

  “And scheme against the next emergence, I —

  “To covet her Taurello-sprite, made fly

  “Or fold the wing — to con your horoscope

  “For leave command those steely shafts shoot ope,

  “Or straight assuage their blinding eagerness

  “In blank smooth snow What semblance of success

  “To any of my plans for making you

  “Mine and Romano’s? Break the first wall through,

  “Tread o’er the ruins of the Chief, supplant
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br />   “His sons beside, still, vainest were the vaunt:

  “There, Salinguerra would obstruct me sheer,

  “And the insuperable Tuscan, here,

  “Stay me! But one wild eve that Lady died

  “In her lone chamber: only I beside:

  “Taurello far at Naples, and my sire

  “At Padua, Ecelin away in ire

  “With Alberic. She held me thus — a clutch

  “To make our spirits as our bodies touch —

  “And so began flinging the past up heaps

  “Of uncouth treasure from their sunless sleeps

  “Within her soul; deeds rose along with dreams,

  “Fragments of many miserable schemes,

  “Secrets, more secrets, then — no, not the last —

  “‘Mongst others, like a casual trick o’ the past,

  “How . . . ay, she told me, gathering up her face,

  “All left of it, into one arch-grimace

  “To die with . . .

  ”Friend, ‘t is gone! but not the fear

  “Of that fell laughing, heard as now I hear.

  “Nor faltered voice, nor seemed her heart grow weak

  “When i’ the midst abrupt she ceased to speak

  “ — Dead, as to serve a purpose, mark! — for in

  “Rushed o’ the very instant Ecelin

  “(How summoned, who divines?) — looking as if

  “He understood why Adelaide lay stiff

  “Already in my arms; for ‘Girl, how must

  “‘I manage Este in the matter thrust

  “‘Upon me, how unravel your bad coil? —

  “‘Since’ (he declared) t is on your brow — a soil

  “‘Like hers there!’ then in the same breath, ‘he lacked

  “‘No counsel after all, had signed no pact

  “‘With devils, nor was treason here or there,

  “‘Goito or Vicenza, his affair:

  “‘He buried it in Adelaide’s deep grave,

  “‘Would begin life afresh, now, — would not slave

  “‘For any Friedrich’s nor Taurello’s sake!

  “‘What booted him to meddle or to make

  “‘In Lombardy?’ And afterward I knew

  “The meaning of his promise to undo

  “All she had done — why marriages were made,

  “New friendships entered on, old followers paid

  “With curses for their pains, — new friends’ amaze

  “At height, when, passing out by Gate St. Blaise,

  “He stopped short in Vicenza, bent his head

  “Over a friar’s neck, — ’had vowed,’ he said,

  “‘Long since, nigh thirty years, because his wife

  “‘And child were saved there, to bestow his life

  “‘On God, his gettings on the Church.’

  ”Exiled

  “Within Goito, still one dream beguiled

  “My days and nights; ‘t was found, the orb I sought