Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/188

182 The earliest key-note. Could I sing this song, If my dead masters had not taken heed To help the heavens and earth to make me strong, As the wind ever will find out some reed, And touch it to such issues as belong To such a frail thing? Who denies the dead, Libations from full cups? Unless we choose To look back to the hills behind us spread, The plains before us sadden and confuse; If orphaned, we are disinherited.

I would but turn these lachrymals to use, Fill them with fresh oil from the olive grove, To feed the new lamp fuller. Shall I say What made my heart beat with exulting love, A few weeks back?

The day was such a day As Florence owes the sun. The sky above, Its weight upon the mountains seemed to lay, And palpitate in glory, like a dove Who has flown too fast, full-hearted. Take away The image! for the heart of man beat higher That day in Florence, flooding all her streets And piazzas with a tumult and desire. The people, with accumulated heats, And faces turned one way, as if one fire Did draw and flush them, leaving their old beats, Went upward to the palace Pitti wall, To thank their Grand-duke, who, not quite of course, Had graciously permitted, at their call, The citizens to use their civic force