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 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
271
VIII. THE RENAISSANCE, AND SAVONAROLA.—1.
Painter, that on these sacred convent wallsThe symbols paintest of the fleeting Hours,
Reserve thine art, poor spoil from Pagan bowers,
To deck withal the rich man's secular halls!
Are these the Hours? aërial Bacchanals
With urn down-bent or basket heaped with flowers,
Through sunshine borne, light Zephyr's paramours?
—Thralls though we be, we are not Pleasure's thralls!
When God with thunder and his prophet's voice
The temples where of old he chose to dwell
Chooses to shake in judgment, cleanse or quell,
How impious sounds thy summons to rejoice!
Erase thy work; kneel on the tombstones bare:
Thine eye with fastings purge: make firm thy hand with prayer.
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |