Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/215

 We poets, wandered round by dreams, who hailed From this Atrides' roof (with lintel-post Which still drips blood,—the worse part hath prevailed) The fire-voice of the beacons, to declare Troy taken, sorrow ended,—cozened through A crimson sunset in a misty air,— What now remains for such as we, to do? -God's judgments, peradventure, will He bare To the roots of thunder, if we kneel and sue?

From Casa Guidi windows I looked forth, And saw ten thousand eyes of Florentines Flash back the triumph of the Lombard north,— Saw fifty banners, freighted with the signs And exultations of the awakened earth, Float on above the multitude in lines, Straight to the Pitti. So, the vision went. And so, between those populous rough hands Raised in the sun, Duke Leopold outleant, And took the patriot's oath, which henceforth stands Among the oaths of perjurers, eminent To catch the lightnings ripened for these lands.

Why swear at all, thou false Duke Leopold? What need to swear? What need to boast thy blood Taintless of Austria, and thy heart unsold Away from Florence? It was understood God made thee not too vigorous or too bold,