 | Poems |  |
ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF TASSO.
“They learn in suffering what they teach in song:”So was it with the life we gaze on here?
No; the great glory of his tale is clear
From the deep shadow of his mortal wrong;
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Sung not alone to be sweet to man's ear,
But in the higher hope, the faith more dear,
That He who will'd it would approve his song.
Strange that this brow in awe we look on here,
God should have will'd such anguish to have known,
That madness, from its suffering and its fear,
Its heart's despair, could give it rest alone!
Yet those eyes saw the mighty vision clear,
And made its glory his, its joy our own.
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