University of Virginia Library

IX.A GREAT MAN.

Venetian
Dandalo, Doge elect, and Amiral,
And Captain, sits in solemn council hall.
His long beard, lustrous with the spotless snows
Of more than fourscore winters, amply flows
To hide the angry jewel, clasp'd with gold,
That firmly doth his heavy mantle hold.
Cover'd he sits. Above his blind bald brow
The Ducal bonnet (Tintoret shows ye how)
Glows like a sunset glory on the scalp
Of some sublime and thunder-scathèd alp.
And the furr'd velvets o'er his breastplate fall
In folded masses, as majestical
As honours on the manhood of the man.
Soon may ye tell, if ye his posture scan,
By the grand careless calmness of the way
His mantle laps and hangs, that in the play
Of this world's business he hath ever been
Chief actor, chosen for each foreground scene;
Whence, living is to him a stately thing
Made easy by long wont of governing.
Those deep blind eyes for Venice' sake burn'd out!
Since he, whom Venice fear'd, most fear'd, no doubt,
Those eyes. The firm fine features of that face,
In strength so delicate, so strong in grace!
All those augustest opposites that mix
In some superlative character, to fix
With one strong soul, and grace with one fit frame,
Man's evanescent elements, became
Associate ministers to this man's will.
—The symbols of the valley and the hill:
The storm, the eagle, and the cataract,—
Passions, and powers that passionately act;
The streamlet, and the vineleaf in the sun,—
Graces that gracious influence acts upon;
Meet in the aspect of that bended head.
And the great Lion of St. Mark doth spread
His mighty wings above the baldachin
That decks the throne; mute mid the trumpet's din,
Claiming his own.
The smooth and spacious floors
Are open-porched. Thro' airy corridors
You mark the marshal'd heralds, station'd calm
About the broad stone platform, bathed in balm
Of blissful weather, and the warm noon-light.
Down the sloped hill, the streeted city white
Hums populous. The sea-breeze, blowing in,
Flutters gay flags in harbours Zaratin;
Heaving on ballustraded ramparts wide,
And at high casements, throng'd and balconied,
Thick streams of many-colour'd silken scarves.
And, all about the warmèd quays and wharves,
The sea is strown with snowy sails, by swarms
Of high-deck'd galleys, from whose prows the arms
Of heroes hang, and low-hull'd palanders.