 | Elegies and memorials |  |
I.—To Mazzini just out of Prison.
Oh, never nobler, more beloved than now!The land thy whole life died for lives secure,
Free, crowned—and thou must stand aloof, obscure,
Far off, as one his dearest disavow—
Thy land, but not thy holy dream; for thou
Hadst shrined thy Italy in skies too pure,
Too nobly free had planned her, to endure
Triumphs of statecraft branded on her brow.
And so, the vulgar hero takes a crown;
Pale comes the martyr-saint from prison-blight;
Oh, prophet-glance, be higher, further winged!
Though now in darkness that life-star go down,
Look where it rises—the brute sword unkinged—
O'er all the days to come an orb of light.
| Elegies and memorials | |