 | Miscellaneous Poems |  |
36
ON THE STATUE OF LORENZO DUKE OF URBINO,
BY MICHAEL ANGELO.
Long must he sit within his regal chair,Bending to earth that thoughtful brow of pain,
And long! oh! long, the never-sleeping twain
Keep their allotted watch to guard him there,
By night—by day—wake the gigantic pair
Within the portals of this marble fane,
Lest that a single spark of life remain
To light and animate that brow of care.
One moment could he rise—oh! could they sleep,
One moment only of all future time,
Then would he from his throne of marble leap,
And blot for ever out that fatal crime
Which hung as black as midnight o'er his prime,
And sank the one he lov'd, in slumber deep.
One summer noon I saw the late Mr. S. Rogers, seated under the shade of a large cypress tree in the Boboli Gardens at Florence, with a volume of the Marchioness of Pescara's Poems in his hand—“Look,” he said, “what a spot I have chosen! There (pointing down to Florence) there is Giotto's tower,—there are Lorenzo Ghiberti's gates,—the gates of Paradise,—there is Dante's marble chair beside the Arno,—and there is Michael Angelo's own house.” And then we walked to the chapel of the Medici, and on our way home he gave an interesting sketch of the life of the Duke d' Urbino in his brief, animated, and poetical manner.
| Miscellaneous Poems | |