The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti :: :: University of Virginia Library

Now of the hue of ashes are the Whites;
And they go following now after the kind
Of creatures we call crabs, which, as some find,
Will only seek their natural food o'nights.
All day they hide; their flesh has such sore frights
Lest Death be come for them on every wind,
Lest now the Lion's wrath be so inclined
That they may never set their sin to rights.
Guelf were they once, and now are Ghibelline:
Nothing but rebels henceforth be they named,—
State-foes, as are the Uberti, every one.
Behold, against the Whites all men must sign
Some judgment whence no pardon can be claim'd
Excepting they were offered to Saint John.

Several other pieces by this author, addressed to Guido Cavalcanti and Dante da Maiano, will be found among their poems.

I.e. Florence.

That is, presented at the high altar on the feast-day of St. John the Baptist; a ceremony attending the release of criminals, a certain number of whom were annually pardoned on that day in Florence. This was the disgraceful condition annexed to that recall to Florence which Dante received when in exile at the court of Verona; which others accepted, but which was refused by him in a memorable epistle still preserved.