University of Virginia Library

VII. A PICTURE BY ANDREA DEL SARTO, IN THE CATHEDRAL OF PISA.

Are there not virtues which we know not of,
By men unnamed because not met with here,
Perchance too lofty for this lowly sphere,
Our great and glorious heritage above,
Yet here in virtues which we know and love
Dimly foreshown? Thus dimly to the seer,
Rehearsed in humbler kinds that round us move
The sovran attributes of man appear.
Madonna! I have hung day after day
On thy strange beauty with a devout eye;
And now, all marvel, rapture, ecstasy
Rebuked, or harmonised, or worn away,
I gaze; and ask what I have asked; and stay
Lingering, and vainly hoping a reply.