Page:A midsummer holiday and other poems (IA midsummerholiday00swin).pdf/65

 Nor lacked these lights of constellated age A star among them fed with life more dire, Lit with his bloodred fame, whose withering rage Made earth for heaven's sake one funereal pyre And life in faith's name one appointed stage For death to purge the souls of men with fire. Heaven, earth, and hell on one thrice tragic page Mixed all their light and darkness: one man's lyre Gave all their echoes voice; Bade rose-cheeked love rejoice, And cold-lipped craft with ravenous fear conspire, And fire-eyed faith smite hope Dead, seeing enthroned as Pope And crowned of heaven on earth at hell's desire Sin, called by death's incestuous name Borgia: the world that heard it flushed and quailed with shame.