 | Voices and visions |  |
72
TO DANTE
O Dante, if you had lived in later years,
I think the regal radiance of your brain
Would not have spent itself on all those vain
Sarcasms and ironies, where vengeance rears
A crest so viperous! Not the groans and tears
Wrung from your foes in their eternal pain
Would best have pleased you, but that loftier gain
Of pity and pardon for the world's worst jeers.
I think the regal radiance of your brain
Would not have spent itself on all those vain
Sarcasms and ironies, where vengeance rears
A crest so viperous! Not the groans and tears
Wrung from your foes in their eternal pain
Would best have pleased you, but that loftier gain
Of pity and pardon for the world's worst jeers.
This house of hate you have builded, wrought so dread
With gargoyles that leer scorn below, above;
With huge dark spires; with noisome crypt and den;—
Ah, Dante, if you had fashioned it, instead,
From the pure marble of mercy and of love,
How mightier and more beauteous were it then!
With gargoyles that leer scorn below, above;
With huge dark spires; with noisome crypt and den;—
Ah, Dante, if you had fashioned it, instead,
From the pure marble of mercy and of love,
How mightier and more beauteous were it then!
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