Which led from the cathedral to the And ever as she went her light fair feet Ginevra saw her lover, and forbore Rushing upon her heart, and unsubdued The bride- maidens who round her Said-"Friend, if earthly violence or Suspicion, doubt, or the tyrannic will Of parents, chance, or custom, time or change, Or circumstance, or terror, or revenge, Or wildered looks, or words, or evil speech, With all their stings and venom can impeach Making her but an image of the thought, News of the terrors of the coming time. end Our love, we love not:-if the grave The pale betrayer-he then with vain which hides The victim from the tyrant, and divides Imperious inquisition to the heart Beckon thee to Gherardi's bridal bed? Of broken vows, but she with patient look The golden circle from her finger took, And said " Accept this token of my faith, The pledge of vows to be absolved by death; repentance Would share, he cannot now avert, the sentence Antonio stood and would have spoken, when The compound voice of women and of men Was heard approaching; he retired, Was led amid the admiring company soon Changed her attire for the afternoon, And left her at her own request to keep An hour of quiet and rest :-like one asleep With open eyes and folded hands she lay, And I am dead or shall be soon-my Pale in the light of the declining day. knell Will mix its music with that merry bell, Meanwhile the day sinks fast, the sun is set, Does it not sound as if they sweetly And in the lighted hall the guests are met; said 'We toll a corpse out of the marriage The beautiful looked lovelier in the light bed?' Of love, and admiration, and delight The flowers upon my bridal chamber Reflected from a thousand hearts and eyes strewn Will serve unfaded for my bier-so Kindling a momentary Paradise. soon That even the dying violet will not die This crowd is safer than the silent wood, solitude; On frozen hearts the fiery rain of wine Falls, and the dew of music more divine And quenched the crimson life upon her Tempers the deep emotions of the time cheek, And glazed her eyes, and spread an atmosphere Round her, which chilled the burning noon with fear, To spirits cradled in a sunny clime:— met, To part too soon, but never to forget. Of looks and words which ne'er enchanted yet; If it be death, when there is felt around A smell of clay, a pale and icy glare, But life's familiar veil was now with- And silence, and a sense that lifts the drawn, hair As the world leaps before an earthquake's From the scalp to the ankles, as it were dawn, And unprophetic of the coming hours, The matin winds from the expanded flowers, Scatter their hoarded incense, and awaken Corruption from the spirit passing forth, And giving all it shrouded to the earth, And leaving as swift lightning in its flight Ashes, and smoke, and darkness: in our night Of thought we know thus much of death, no more The earth, until the dewy sleep is shaken before possesses, Through seas and winds, cities and Their barks are wrecked on its inhospit wildernesses, As if the future and the past were all Treasured i' the instant;-so Gherardi's hall Laughed in the mirth of its lord's festival, Till some one asked-"Where is the Bride?" And then A bride's-maid went,-and ere she came again A silence fell upon the guests—a pause Of expectation, as when beauty awes All hearts with its approach, though unbeheld; able shore. The marriage feast and its solemnity Was turned to funeral pomp-the company With heavy hearts and looks, broke up; nor they Who loved the dead went weeping on their way Alone, but sorrow mixed with sad surprise Loosened the springs of pity in all eyes, On which that form, whose fate they weep in vain, Then wonder, and then fear that wonder Will never, thought they, kindle smiles For whispers past from mouth to ear The lamps which half extinguished in which drew their haste The colour from the hearer's cheeks, Gleamed few and faint o'er the aban Of pleasures now departed; then was THE sun is set; the swallows are asleep; arrived, And one to the charnel-and one, oh The chasm in which the sun has sunk where? is shut By darkest barriers of cinereous cloud, Like mountain over mountain huddledbut Growing and moving upwards in a crowd, And over it a space of watery blue, Which the keen evening star is shining through. THE BOAT ON THE SERCHIO OUR boat is asleep on Serchio's stream, Its sails are folded like thoughts in a dream, The helm sways idly, hither and thither; Dominic, the boatman, has brought the mast, And the oars and the sails; but 'tis sleeping fast, Like a beast, unconscious of its tether. To tower, and cavern, and rift and tree, And the rocks above and the stream And the vapours in their multitudes, And the Apennine's shroud of sum mer snow, And clothed with light of aëry gold Day had awakened all things that be, The lark and the thrush and the swallow free, And the milkmaid's song and the mower's scythe, And the matin-bell and the mountain bee: Fire-flies were quenched on the dewy corn, Glow-worms went out on the river's brim, Like lamps which a student forgets to trim: The beetle forgot to wind his horn, The crickets were still in the meadow and hill: |