Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/183

Rh

And of thy lilies, that do paler grow
 * Now they can no more hear thy ghittern's tune,

For venturing syllables that ill beseem The quiet glooms of such a piteous theme.

Grant thou a pardon here, and then the tale
 * Shall move on soberly, as it is meet;

There is no other crime, no mad assail
 * To make old prose in modern rhyme more sweet:

But it is done—succeed the verse or fail—
 * To honor thee, and thy gone spirit greet;

To stead thee as a verse in English tongue, An echo of thee in the north-wind sung.

These brethren having found by many signs
 * What love Lorenzo for their sister had,

And how she loved him too, each unconfines
 * His bitter thoughts to other, wellnigh mad

That he, the servant of their trade designs,
 * Should in their sister's love be blithe and glad,

When 'twas their plan to coax her by degrees To some high noble and his olive-trees.

And many a jealous conference had they,
 * And many times they bit their lips alone,

Before they fix'd upon a surest way
 * To make the youngster for his crime atone;

And at the last, these men of cruel clay
 * Cut Mercy with a sharp knife to the bone;