The head! Successively sewer, forum, cirque —
Last age, an aqueduct was counted work,
But now they tire the artificer upon
Blank alabaster, black obsidion,
— Careful, Jove’s face be duly fulgurant,
And mother Venus’ kiss-creased nipples pant
Back into pristine pulpiness, ere fixed
Above the baths. What difference betwixt
This Rome and ours — resemblance what, between
That scurvy dumb-show and this pageant sheen —
These Romans and our rabble? Use thy wit!
The work marched: step by step, — a workman fit
Took each, nor too fit, — to one task, one time, —
No leaping o’er the petty to the prime,
When just the substituting osier lithe
For brittle bulrush, sound wood for soft withe,
To further loam-and-roughcast-work a stage, —
Exacts an architect, exacts an age:
No tables of the Mauritanian tree
For men whose maple log ‘s their luxury!
That way was Rome built. “Better” (say you) “merge
“At once all workmen in the demiurge,
“All epochs in a lifetime, every task
“In one!” So should the sudden city bask
I’ the day — while those we ‘d feast there, want the knack
Of keeping fresh-chalked gowns from speck and brack,
Distinguish not rare peacock from vile swan,
Nor Mareotic juice from Cæcuban.
“Enough of Rome! ‘T was happy to conceive
“Rome on a sudden, nor shall fate bereave
“Me of that credit: for the rest, her spite
“Is an old story — serves my folly right
“By adding yet another to the dull
“List of abortions — things proved beautiful
“Could they be done, Sordello cannot do.”
He sat upon the terrace, plucked and threw
The powdery aloe-cusps away, saw shift
Rome’s walls, and drop arch after arch, and drift
Mist-like afar those pillars of all stripe,
Mounds of all majesty. “Thou archetype,
“Last of my dreams and loveliest, depart!”
And then a low voice wound into his heart:
“Sordello!” (low as some old Pythoness
Conceding to a Lydian King’s distress
The cause of his long error — one mistake
Of her past oracle) “Sordello, wake!
“God has conceded two sights to a man —
“One, of men’s whole work, time’s completed plan,
“The other, of the minute’s work, man’s first
“Step to the plan’s completeness: what’s dispersed
“Save hope of that supreme step which, descried
“Earliest, was meant still to remain untried
“Only to give you heart to take your own
“Step, and there stay, leaving the rest alone?
“Where is the vanity? Why count as one
“The first step, with the last step? What is gone
“Except Rome’s aëry magnificence,
“That last step you ‘d take first? — an evidence
“You were God: be man now! Let those glances fall!
“The basis, the beginning step of all,
“Which proves you just a man — is that gone too?
“Pity to disconcert one versed as you
“In fate’s ill-nature! but its full extent
“Eludes Sordello, even: the veil rent,
“Read the black writing — that collective man
“Outstrips the individual. Who began
“The acknowledged greatnesses? Ay, your own art
“Shall serve us: put the poet’s mimes apart —
“Close with the poet’s self, and lo, a dim
“Yet too plain form divides itself from him!
“Alcamo’s song enmeshes the lulled Isle,
“Woven into the echoes left erewhile
“By Nina, one soft web of song: no more
“Turning his name, then, flower-like o’er and o’er!
“An elder poet in the younger’s place;
“Nina’s the strength, but Alcamo’s the grace:
“Each neutralizes each then! Search your fill;
“You get no whole and perfect Poet — still
“New Ninas, Alcamos, till time’s mid-night
“Shrouds all — or better say, the shutting light
“Of a forgotten yesterday. Dissect
“Every ideal workman — (to reject
“In favour of your fearful ignorance
“The thousand phantasms eager to advance,
“And point you but to those within your reach) —
“Were you the first who brought — (in modern speech)
“The Multitude to be materialized?
“That loose eternal unrest — who devised
“An apparition i’ the midst? The rout
“Was checked, a breathless ring was formed about
“That sudden flower: get round at any risk
“The gold-rough pointel, silver-blazing disk
“O’ the lily! Swords across it! Reign thy reign
“And serve thy frolic service, Charlemagne!
“ — The very child of over-joyousness,
“Unfeeling thence, strong therefore: Strength by stress
“Of Strength comes of that forehead confident,
“Those widened eyes expecting heart’s content,
“A calm as out of just-quelled noise; nor swerves
“For doubt, the ample cheek in gracious curves
“Abutting on the upthrust nether lip:
“He wills, how should he doubt then? Ages slip:
“Was it Sordello pried into the work
“So far accomplished, and discovered lurk
“A company amid the other clans,
“Only distinct in priests for castellans
“And popes for suzerains (their rule confessed
“Its rule, their interest its interest,
“Living for sake of living — there an end, —
“Wrapt in itself, no energy to spend
“In making adversaries or allies) —
“Dived you into its capabilities
“And dared create, out of that sect, a soul
“Should turn a multitude, already whole,
“Into its body? Speak plainer! Is ‘t so sure
“God’s church lives by a King’s investiture?
“Look to last step! A staggering — a shock —
“What ‘s mere sand is demolished, while the rock
“Endures: a column of black fiery dust
“Blots heaven — that help was prematurely thrust
“Aside, perchance! — but air clears, nought ‘s erased
“Of the true outline. Thus much being firm based,
“The other was a scaffold. See him stand
“Buttressed upon his mattock, Hildebrand
“Of the huge brain-mask welded ply o’er ply
“As in a forge; it buries either eye
“White and extinct, that stupid brow; teeth clenched,
“The neck tight-corded, too, the chin deep-trenched,
“As if a cloud enveloped him while fought
“Under its shade, grim prizers, thought with thought
“At dead-lock, agonizing he, until
“The victor thought leap radiant up, and Will,
“The slave with folded arms and drooping lids
“They fought for, lean forth flame-like as it bids.
“Call him no flower — a mandrake of the earth,
“Thwarted and dwarfed and blasted in its birth,
“Rather, — a fruit of suffering’s excess,
“Thence feeling, therefore stronger: still by stress
“Have men to wear away in smiles and tears
“Between the two that nearly seemed to touch,
“Observe you! quit one workman and you clutch
“Another, letting both their trains go by —
“The actors-out of either’s policy,
“Heinrich, on this hand, Otho, Barbaross,
“Carry the three Imperial crowns across,
“Aix’ Iron, Milan’s Silver, and Rome’s Gold —
“While Alexander, Innocent uphold
“On that, each Papal key — but, link on link,
“Why is it neither chain betrays a chink?
“How coalesce the small and great? Alack,
“For one thrust forward, fifty such fall back!
“Do the popes coupled there help Gregory
“Alone? Hark — from the hermit Peter’s cry
“At Claremont, down to the first serf that says
“Friedrich ‘s no liege of his while he delays
“Getting the Pope’s curse off him! The Crusade —
“Or trick of breeding Strength by other aid
“Than Strength, is safe. Hark — from the wild harangue
“Of Vimmercato, to the carroch’s clang
“Yonder! The League — or trick of turning Strength
“Against Pernicious Strength, is safe at length.
“Yet hark — from Mantuan Albert making cease
“The fierce ones, to Saint Francis preaching peace
“Yonder! God’s Truce — or trick to supersede
“The very Use of Strength, is safe. Indeed
“We trench upon the future. Who is found
“To take next step, next age — trail o’er the ground —
“Shall I say, gourd-like? — not the flower’s display
“Nor the root’s prowess, but the plenteous way
“O’ the plant — produced by joy and sorrow, whence
“Unfeeling and yet feeling, strongest thence?
“Knowledge by stress of merely Knowledge? No —
“E’en were Sordello ready to forego
“His life for this, ‘t were overleaping work
“Some one has first to do, howe’er it irk,
“Nor stray a foot’s breadth from the beaten road.
“Who means to help must still support the load
“Hildebrand lifted — ’why hast Thou,’ he groaned,
“`Imposed on me a burthen, Paul had moaned,
“‘And Moses dropped beneath?’ Much done — and yet
“Doubtless that grandest task God ever set
“On man, left much to do: at his arm’s wrench,
“Charlemagne’s scaffold fell; but pillars blench
“Merely, start back again — perchance have been
“Taken for buttresses: crash every screen,
“Hammer the tenons better, and engage
“A gang about your work, for the next age
“Or two, of Knowledge, part by Strength and part
“By Knowledge! Then, indeed, perchance may start
“Sordello on his race — would time divulge
“Such secrets! If one step’s awry, one bulge
“Calls for correction by a step we thought
“Got over long since, why, till that is wrought,
“No progress! And the scaffold in its turn
“Becomes, its service o’er, a thing to spurn.
“Meanwhile, if your half-dozen years of life
“In store dispose you to forego the strife,
“Who takes exception? Only bear in mind
“Ferrara ‘s reached, Goito ‘s left behind:
“As you then were, as half yourself, desist!
“ — The warrior-part of you may, an it list,
“Finding real faulchions difficult to poise,
“Fling them afar and taste the cream of joys
“By wielding such in fancy, — what is bard
“Of you may spurn the vehicle that marred
“Elys so much, and in free fancy glut
“His sense, yet write no verses — you have but
“To please yourself for law, and once could please
“What once appeared yourself, by dreaming these
“Rather than doing these, in days gone by.
“But all is changed the moment you descry
“Mankind as half yourself, — then, fancy’s trade
“Ends once and always: how may half evade
“The other half? men are found half of you.
“Out of a thousand helps, just one or two
“Can be accomplished presently: but flinch
“From these (as from the faulchion, raised an inch,
“Elys, described a couplet) and make proof
“Of fancy, — then, while one half lolls aloof
“I’ the vines, completing Rome to the tip-top —
“See if, for that, your other half will stop
“A tear, begin a smile! The rabble’s woes,
“Ludicrous in their patience as they chose
“To sit about their town and quietly
“Be slaughtered, — the poor reckless soldiery,
“With their ignoble rhymes on Richard, how
“‘Polt-foot,’ sang they, ‘was in a pitfall now,’
“Cheering each other from the engine-mounts, —
“That crippled spawling idiot who recounts
“How, lopped of limbs, he lay, stupid as stone,
“Till the pains crept from out him one by one,
“And wriggles round the archers on his head
“To earn a morsel of their chestnut bread, —
“And Cino, always in the self-same place
“Weeping; beside that other wretch’s case,
“Eyepits to ear, one gangrene since he plied
“The engine in his coat of raw sheep’s hide
“A double watch in the noon sun; and see
“Lucchino, beauty, with the favours free,
“Trim hacqueton, spruce beard and scented hair,
“Campaigning it for the first time — cut there
“In two already, boy enough to crawl
“For latter orpine round the southern wall,
“Tomà, where Richard ‘s kept, because that whore
“Marfisa, the fool never saw before,
“Sickened for flowers this wearisomest siege:
“And Tiso’s wife — men liked their pretty liege,
“Cared for her least of whims once, — Berta, wed
“A twelvemonth gone, and, now poor Tiso’s dead,
“Delivering herself of his first child
“On that chance heap of wet filth, reconciled
“To fifty gazers!” — (Here a wind below
Made moody music augural of woe
From the pine barrier) — ”What if, now the scene
“Draws to a close, yourself have really been
“ — You, plucking purples in Goito’s moss
“Like edges of a trabea (not to cross
“Your consul-humour) or dry aloe-shafts
“For fasces, at Ferrara — he, fate wafts,
“This very age, her whole inheritance
`Of opportunities? Yet you advance
“Upon the last! Since talking is your trade,
“There ‘s Salinguerra left you to persuade:
“Fail! then” —
”No — no — which latest chance secure!”
Leaped up and cried Sordello: “this made sure,
“The past were yet redeemable; its work
“Was — help the Guelfs, whom I, howe’er it irk,
“Thus help!” He shook the foolish aloe-haulm
Out of his doublet, paused, proceeded calm
To the appointed presence. The large head
Turned on its socket; “And your spokesman,” said
The large voice, “is Elcorte’s happy sprout?
“Few such” — (so finishing a speech no doubt
Addressed to Palma, silent at his side)
“ — My sober councils have diversified.
“Elcorte’s son! good: forward as you may,
“Our lady’s minstrel with so much to say!”
The hesitating sunset floated back,
Rosily traversed in the wonted track
The chamber, from the lattice o’er the girth
Of pines, to the huge eagle blacked in earth
Opposite, — outlined sudden, spur to crest,
That solid Salinguerra, and caressed
Palma’s contour; ‘t was day looped back night’s pall;
Sordello had a chance left spite of all.
And much he made of the convincing speech
Meant to compensate for the past and reach
Through his youth’s daybreak of unprofit, quite
To his noon’s labour, so proceed till night
Leisurely! The great argument to bind
Taurello with the Guelf Cause, body and mind,
— Came the consummate rhetoric to that?
Yet most Sordello’s argument dropped flat
Through his accustomed fault of breaking yoke,
Disjoining him who felt from him who spoke.
Was ‘t not a touching incident — so prompt
A rendering the world its just accompt,
Once proved its debtor? Who ‘d suppose, before
This proof, that he, Goito’s god of yore,
At duty’s instance could demean himself
So memorably, dwindle to a Guelf?
Be sure, in such delicious flattery steeped,
His inmost self at the out-portion peeped,
Thus occupied; then stole a glance at those
Appealed to, curious if her colour rose
Or his lip moved, while he discreetly urged
The need of Lombardy becoming purged
At soonest of her barons; the poor part
Abandoned thus, missing the blood at heart
And spirit in brain, unseasonably off
Elsewhere! But, though his speech was worthy scoff,
Good-humoured Salinguerra, famed for tact
And tongue, who, careless of his phrase, ne’er lacked
The right phrase, and harangued Honorius dumb
At his accession, — looked as all fell plumb
To purpose and himself found interest
In every point his new instructor pressed
— Left playing with the rescript’s white wax seal
To scrutinize Sordello head and heel.
He means to yield assent sure? No, alas!
All he replied was, “What, it comes to pass
“That poesy, sooner than politics,
“Makes fade young hair?” To think such speech could fix
Taurello!
Robert Browning - Delphi Poets Series Page 17