Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat

The Count your master's known munificence 50 Is ample warrant that no just pretense Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, 55 Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

SONG

(From Pippa Passes, 1841)

The year 's at the spring
The day 's at the morn;
Morning 's at seven;

The hillside 's dew-pearled;
5 The lark 's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn:
God 's in his heaven-

All 's right with the world!

HOME THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD

(From Bells and Pomegranates No. VII., 1845)

I.

Oh, to be in England now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England sees, some morn

ing, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brush-wood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

5 While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England-now!

II.

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge 10 Leans to the field and scatters on the clover Blossoms and dewdrops-at the bent spray's edge

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice

over

Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!

15 And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
Or will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
-Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

THE GUARDIAN-ANGEL:

A PICTURE AT FANO

(From Men and Women, 1855)

I.

Dear and great Angel, wouldst thou only leave That child, when thou hast done with him, for me!

Let me sit all the day here, that when eve

Shall find performed thy special ministry, 5 And time come for departure, thou, suspending Thy flight, may'st see another child for tending, Another still, to quiet and retrieve.

II.

Then I shall feel thee step one step, no more,

From where thou stand'st now, to where I gaze,

10 And suddenly my head be covered o'er

With those wings, white above the child who

prays

Now on that tomb-and I shall feel thee guard

ing

Me, out of all the world; for me, discarding
Yon heaven thy home, that waits and opes its
door!

III.

15 I would not look up thither past thy head Because the door opes, like that child, I know, For I should have thy gracious face instead, Thou bird of God! And wilt thou bend me low

Like him, and lay, like his, my hands together, 20 And lift them up to pray, and gently tether Me as thy lamb there, with thy garment's spread?

25

30

IV.

If this was ever granted, I would rest

My head beneath thine, while thy healing hands

Close-covered both my eyes beside thy breast,
Pressing the brain which too much thought ex-
pands

Back to its proper size again, and smoothing
Distortion down till every nerve had soothing,
And all lay quiet, happy and supprest.

V.

How soon all worldly wrong would be repaired! I think how I should view the earth and skies And sea, when once again my brow was bared

After thy healing, with such different eyes,

35

O world, as God has made it! all is beauty;
And knowing this, is love, and love is duty.
What further may be sought for or declared?

ANDREA DEL SARTO

CALLED THE FAULTLESS PAINTER

(From Men and Women, 1855)

But do not let us quarrel any more,

"

No, my Lucrezia; bear with me for once:
Sit down and all shall happen as you wish.
You turn your face, but does it bring your heart?
5 I'll work then for your friend's friend, never fear,
Treat his own subject after his own way,

Fix his own time, accept too his own price,
And shut the money into this small hand
When next it takes mine. Will it? tenderly?
10 Oh, I'll content him,-but to-morrow, Love!
I often am much wearier than you think,
This evening more than usual, and it seems
As if-forgive now-should you let me sit
Here by the window with your hand in mine
15 And look a half hour forth on Fiesole,

Both of one mind, as married people use,
Quietly, quietly the evening through,
I might get up to-morrow to my work
Cheerful and fresh as ever. Let us try.
20 To-morrow, how you shall be glad for this!
Your soft hand is a woman of itself,

And mine the man's bared breast she curls inside.
Don't count the time lost, neither; you must

serve

For each of the five pictures we require:

25 It saves a model. So! keep looking soMy serpentining beauty, rounds on rounds! -How could you ever prick those perfect ears, Even to put the pearl there! oh, so sweetMy face, my moon, my everybody's moon, 30 Which everybody looks on and calls his, And, I suppose, is looked on by in turn,

While she looks-no one's: very dear, no less. You smile? why, there's my picture ready made, There's what we painters call our harmony! 35 A common grayness silvers every thing,All in a twilight, you and I alike

-You, at the point of your first pride in me (That's gone, you know),—but I, at every point; My youth, my hope, my art, being all toned down 40 To yonder sober pleasant Fiesole.

There's the bell clinking from the chapel-top; That length of convent-wall across the way Holds the trees safer, huddled more inside; The last monk leaves the garden; days decrease, 45 And autumn grows, autumn in every thing. Eh? the whole seems to fall into a shape As if I saw alike my work and self

And all that I was born to be and do,

A twilight-piece. Love, we are in God's hand. 50 How strange now looks the life he makes us lead; So free we seem, so fettered fast we are!

I feel he laid the fetter: let it lie!

This chamber for example-turn your headAll that's behind us! You don't understand 55 Nor care to understand about my art,

But you can hear at least when people speak:
And that cartoon, the second from the door
-It is the thing, Love! so such things should
be-

Behold Madonna!-I am bold to say.

60 I can do with my pencil what I know,

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »