Must Twine "Somehow With Something! Ecelin 'S A Fine "Clear Name! 'Twere Simpler, Doubtless, Twine With Me "At Once: Our Cloistered Friend'S Capacity "Was Of A Sort! I Had To Share Myself "In Fifty Portions, Like An O'Ertasked Elf "That 'S Forced Illume In Fifty Points The Vast "Rare Vapour He 'S Environed By. At Last "My Strengths, Though Sorely Frittered, E'En Converge "And Crown . . . No, Bacchus, They Have Yet To Urge "The Man Be Crowned! "That Aloe, An He Durst, "Would Climb! Just Such A Bloated Sprawler First "I Noted In Messina'S Castle-Court "The Day I Came, When Heinrich Asked In Sport "If I Would Pledge My Faith To Win Him Back "His Right In Lombardy: 'For, Once Bid Pack "Marauders,' He Continued, `In My Stead "'You Rule, Taurello!' And Upon This Head `Laid The Silk Glove Of Constance I See Her "Too, Mantled Head To Foot In Miniver, "Retrude Following! "I Am Absolved "From Further Toil: The Empery Devolved "On Me, 'T Was Tito'S Word: I Have To Lay "For Once My Plan, Pursue My Plan My Way, "Prompt Nobody, And Render An Account "Taurello To Taurello! Nay, I Mount "To Friedrich: He Conceives The Post I Kept, "Who Did True Service, Able Or Inept, "Who 'S Worthy Guerdon, Ecelin Or I. "Me Guerdoned, Counsel Follows: Would He Vie "With The Pope Really? Azzo, Boniface "Compose A Right-Arm Hohenstauffen'S Race "Must Break Ere Govern Lombardy. I Point "How Easy 'T Were To Twist, Once Out Of Joint, "The Socket From The Bone: My Azzo'S Stare "Meanwhile! For I, This Idle Strap To Wear, "Shall Fret Myself Abundantly, What End "To Serve? There 'S Left Me Twenty Years To Spend "How Better Than My Old Way? Had I One "Who Laboured Overthrow My Work A Son "Hatching With Azzo Superb Treachery, "To Root My Pines Up And Then Poison Me, "Suppose 'T Were Worth While Frustrate That! Beside, "Another Life'S Ordained Me: The World'S Tide "Rolls, And What Hope Of Parting From The Press "Of Waves, A Single Wave Though Weariness "Gently Lifted Aside, Laid Upon Shore? "My Life Must Be Lived Out In Foam And Roar, "No Question. Fifty Years The Province Held "Taurello; Troubles Raised, And Troubles Quelled, "He In The Midst Who Leaves This Quaint Stone Place, "These Trees A Year Or Two, Then Not A Trace "Of Him! How Obtain Hold, Fetter Men'S Tongues "Like This Poor Minstrel With The Foolish Songs "To Which, Despite Our Bustle, He Is Linked? " Flowers One May Teaze, That Never Grow Extinct. "Ay, That Patch, Surely, Green As Ever, Where "I Set Her Moorish Lentisk, By The Stair, "To Overawe The Aloes; And We Trod "Those Flowers, How Call You Such? Into The Sod; "A Stately Foreigner A World Of Pain "To Make It Thrive, Arrest Rough Winds All Vain! "It Would Decline; These Would Not Be Destroyed: "And Now, Where Is It? Where Can You Avoid "The Flowers? I Frighten Children Twenty Years "Longer! Which Way, Too, Ecelin Appears "To Thwart Me, For His Son'S Besotted Youth "Gives Promise Of The Proper Tiger Tooth: "They Feel It At Vicenza! Fate, Fate, Fate, "My Fine Taurello! Go You, Promulgate "Friedrich'S Decree, And Here 'S Shall Aggrandise "Young Ecelin Your Prefect'S Badge! A Prize "Too Precious, Certainly. "How Now? Compete "With My Old Comrade? Shuffle From Their Seat "His Children? Paltry Dealing! Do N'T I Know "Ecelin? Now, I Think, And Years Ago! "What 'S Changed The Weakness? Did Not I Compound "For That, And Undertake To Keep Him Sound "Despite It? Here 'S Taurello Hankering "After A Boy'S Preferment This Plaything "To Carry, Bacchus!" And He Laughed. Remark Why Schemes Wherein Cold-Blooded Men Embark Prosper, When Your Enthusiastic Sort Fail: While These Last Are Ever Stopping Short (So Much They Should So Little They Can Do!) The Careless Tribe See Nothing To Pursue If They Desist; Meantime Their Scheme Succeeds. Thoughts Were Caprices In The Course Of Deeds Methodic With Taurello; So, He Turned, Enough Amused By Fancies Fairly Earned Of Este'S Horror-Struck Submitted Neck, And Richard, The Cowed Braggart, At His Beck, To His Own Petty But Immediate Doubt If He Could Pacify The League Without Conceding Richard; Just To This Was Brought That Interval Of Vain Discursive Thought! As, Shall I Say, Some Ethiop, Past Pursuit Of All Enslavers, Dips A Shackled Foot Burnt To The Blood, Into The Drowsy Black Enormous Watercourse Which Guides Him Back To His Own Tribe Again, Where He Is King; And Laughs Because He Guesses, Numbering The Yellower Poison-Wattles On The Pouch Of The First Lizard Wrested From Its Couch Under The Slime (Whose Skin, The While, He Strips To Cure His Nostril With, And Festered Lips, And Eyeballs Bloodshot Through The Desert-Blast) That He Has Reached Its Boundary, At Last May Breathe; Thinks O'Er Enchantments Of The South Sovereign To Plague His Enemies, Their Mouth, Eyes, Nails, And Hair; But, These Enchantments Tried In Fancy, Puts Them Soberly Aside For Truth, Projects A Cool Return With Friends, The Likelihood Of Winning Mere Amends Ere Long; Thinks That, Takes Comfort Silently, Then, From The River'S Brink, His Wrongs And He, Hugging Revenge Close To Their Hearts, Are Soon Off-Striding For The Mountains Of The Moon. Midnight: The Watcher Nodded On His Spear, Since Clouds Dispersing Left A Passage Clear For Any Meagre And Discoloured Moon To Venture Forth; And Such Was Peering Soon Above The Harassed City Her Close Lanes Closer, Not Half So Tapering Her Fanes, As Though She Shrunk Into Herself To Keep What Little Life Was Saved, More Safely. Heap By Heap The Watch-Fires Mouldered, And Beside The Blackest Spoke Sordello And Replied Palma With None To Listen. "'T Is Your Cause: "What Makes A Ghibellin? There Should Be Laws "(Remember How My Youth Escaped! I Trust "To You For Manhood, Palma! Tell Me Just "As Any Child) There Must Be Laws At Work "Explaining This. Assure Me, Good May Lurk "Under The Bad, My Multitude Has Part "In Your Designs, Their Welfare Is At Heart "With Salinguerra, To Their Interest "Refer The Deeds He Dwelt On, So Divest "Our Conference Of Much That Scared Me. Why "Affect That Heartless Tone To Tito? I "Esteemed Myself, Yes, In My Inmost Mind "This Morn, A Recreant To My Race Mankind "O'Erlooked Till Now: Why Boast My SpirIt's Force, "Such Force Denied Its Object? Why Divorce "These, Then Admire My SpirIt's Flight The Same "As Though It Bore Up, Helped Some Half-Orbed Flame "Else Quenched In The Dead Void, To Living Space? "That Orb Cast Off To Chaos And Disgrace, "Why Vaunt So Much My Unencumbered Dance, "Making A Feat'S Facilities Enhance "Its Marvel? But I Front Taurello, One "Of Happier Fate, And All I Should Have Done, "He Does; The People'S Good Being Paramount "With Him, Their Progress May Perhaps Account "For His Abiding Still; Whereas You Heard "The Talk With Tito The Excuse Preferred "For Burning Those Five Hostages, And Broached "By Way Of Blind, As You And I Approached, "I Do Believe." She Spoke: Then He, "My Thought "Plainlier Expressed! All To Your Profit Nought "Meantime Of These, Of Conquests To Achieve "For Them, Of Wretchedness He Might Relieve "While Profiting Your Party. Azzo, Too, "Supports A Cause: What Cause? Do Guelfs Pursue "Their Ends By Means Like Yours, Or Better?" When The Guelfs Were Proved Alike, Men Weighed With Men, And Deed With Deed, Blaze, Blood, With Blood And Blaze, Morn Broke: "Once More, Sordello, Meet Its Gaze "Proudly The People'S Charge Against Thee Fails "In Every Point, While Either Party Quails! "These Are The Busy Ones: Be Silent Thou! "Two Parties Take The World Up, And Allow "No Third, Yet Have One Principle, Subsist "By The Same Injustice; Whoso Shall Enlist "With Either, Ranks With Man'S Inveterate Foes. "So There Is One Less Quarrel To Compose: "The Guelf, The Ghibellin May Be To Curse "I Have Done Nothing, But Both Sides Do Worse "Than Nothing. Nay, To Me, Forgotten, Reft "Of Insight, Lapped By Trees And Flowers, Was Left "The Notion Of A Service Ha? What Lured "Me Here, What Mighty Aim Was I Assured "Must Move Taurello? What If There Remained "A Cause, Intact, Distinct From These, Ordained "For Me, Its True Discoverer?" Some One Pressed Before Them Here, A Watcher, To Suggest The Subject For A Ballad: "They Must Know "The Tale Of The Dead Worthy, Long Ago "Consul Of Rome That 'S Long Ago For Us, "Minstrels And Bowmen, Idly Squabbling Thus `In The World'S Corner But Too Late No Doubt, "For The Brave Time He Sought To Bring About. " Not Know Crescentius Nomentanus?" Then He Cast About For Terms To Tell Him, When Sordello Disavowed It, How They Used Whenever Their Superior Introduced A Novice To The Brotherhood ("For I "Was Just A Brown-Sleeve Brother, Merrily "Appointed Too," Quoth He, "Till Innocent "Bade Me Relinquish, To My Small Content, "My Wife Or My Brown Sleeves") Some Brother Spoke Ere Nocturns Of Crescentius, To Revoke The Edict Issued, After His Demise, Which Blotted Fame Alike And Effigies, All Out Except A Floating Power, A Name Including, Tending To Produce The Same Great Act. Rome, Dead, Forgotten, Lived At Least Within That Brain, Though To A Vulgar Priest And A Vile Stranger, Two Not Worth A Slave Of Rome'S, Pope John, King Otho, Fortune Gave The Rule There: So, Crescentius, Haply Dressed In White, Called Roman Consul For A Jest, Taking The People At Their Word, Forth Stepped As Upon Brutus' Heel, Nor Ever Kept Rome Waiting, Stood Erect, And From His Brain Gave Rome Out On Its Ancient Place Again, Ay, Bade Proceed With Brutus' Rome, Kings Styled Themselves Mere Citizens Of, And, Beguiled Into Great Thoughts Thereby, Would Choose The Gem Out Of A Lapfull, Spoil Their Diadem The Senate'S Cypher Was So Hard To Scratch He Flashes Like A Phanal, All Men Catch The Flame, Rome 'S Just Accomplished! When Returned Otho, With John, The Consul'S Step Had Spurned, And Hugo Lord Of Este, To Redress The Wrongs Of Each. Crescentius In The Stress Of Adverse Fortune Bent. "They Crucified "Their Consul In The Forum; And Abide "E'Er Since Such Slaves At Rome, That I (For I "Was Once A Brown-Sleeve Brother, Merrily "Appointed) I Had Option To Keep Wife "Or Keep Brown Sleeves, And Managed In The Strife "Lose Both. A Song Of Rome!" And Rome, Indeed, Robed At Goito In Fantastic Weed, The Mother-City Of His Mantuan Days, Looked An Established Point Of Light Whence Rays Traversed The World; For, All The Clustered Homes Beside Of Men, Seemed Bent On Being Romes In Their Degree; The Question Was, How Each Should Most Resemble Rome, Clean Out Of Reach. Nor, Of The Two, Did Either Principle Struggle To Change, But To Possess Rome, Still Guelf Rome Or Ghibellin Rome. Let Rome Advance! Rome, As She Struck Sordello'S Ignorance How Could He Doubt One Moment? Rome 'S The Cause! Rome Of The Pandects, All The World'S New Laws Of The Capitol, Of Castle Angelo; New Structures, That Inordinately Glow, Subdued, Brought Back To Harmony, Made Ripe By Many A Relic Of The Archetype Extant For Wonder; Every Upstart Church That Hoped To Leave Old Temples In The Lurch, Corrected By The Theatre Forlorn That, As A Mundane Shell, Its World Late Born, Lay And O'Ershadowed It. These Hints Combined, Rome Typifies The Scheme To Put Mankind Once More In Full Possession Of Their Rights. "Let Us Have Rome Again! On Me It Lights "To Build Up Rome On Me, The First And Last: "For Such A Future Was Endured The Past!" And Thus, In The Grey Twilight, Forth He Sprung To Give His Thought Consistency Among The Very People Let Their Facts Avail Finish The Dream Grown From The Archer'S Tale.