But say, when first affection's sighs arose To think of blessings past; that knows your guide:But yet, if still an eager wish prevail To know how first the guilty flame had way; Oft, as we turn'd the page, our colour fled, For when the story told of raptures high, & And, as one dead, I sunk upon the plain. The Story of UGOLINO, from the same. All as I wander'd on the frozen plain, Where he, my Mantuan guide and guardian led, Through ghastly scenes, and various forms of pain: Froze, in a chink, I saw a grisly head, Which, like a casque, in horrid contact lay Cov'ring another;-saw it gnaw, like bread By rav'ning hunger eat, the flesh away; - Not with such vengeful rage did Tydeus tear The Theban's head, his foul and impious prey. "O you, that with such bestial signs declare Your horrid hate, awhile that hate refrain ; O say the cause, and I to upper air Sing the dire scene, unless, return'd no more, He wip'd his horrid mouth, besmear'd with gore:"Thou will'st that I renew my griefs,” he said, "And tell a tale of woes, so sad, so deep, That e'er I speak my bosom aches with dread. But if my words still fouler shame may heap On this curst head of my relentless foe, I'll tell thee all-though, while I tell, I weep. Thou cam'st down hither; but of Tuscan race Such hate I bear; for, that by fraudful lore But things unheard, my tortures I recite, The dreary den of others doom'd to be ;— A wolf and four small whelps with fury chase;There where our Pisa sinks from Lucca's sight,With eager bounds and swift he urg'd the race, The fell Gualandi, Sismond too pursued, And the fierce Lanfranc in the foremost place. Short was the course, for wearied soon I view'd Both sire and sons the wretched victims bled, And the fierce hell-hounds wallow'd in their blood! But when at day's approach my dream had fled, I heard my sleeping sons with piteous moan,For they were prison'd with me,-cry for bread. O stranger, thou must have a heart of stone, If yet thou dost not weep, if woes so hard Thou weep'st not, surely thou canst weep for none ! The hour of food was come;-no food appear'd! So fear'd we from our dreams, but in the stead I heard,--oh heav'n!-I heard more closely barr'd The massy portal of that dungeon dread!I look'd all round, my sons in silence ey'd, Yet petrified with grief, no tear I shed. But they, poor wretches, wept!-and Anselm cry'd,My little Anselm !-Sire what ails thee? say Why look'st thou thus? I wept not, nor reply'd; But silent all, from morn 'till eve I lay, In dreadful silence lay the following night : Till, faintly in my den, the dawning ray On those four faces cast a glimm'ring light Which nature's plastic hand had stamp'd like mine;I gnaw'd my hands, all frantic with the sight! They, thinking hunger urg'd me, rising join In loud lament;-"Ah less," they cry'd, "the pain If thou wouldst feed on us ;-these limbs are thine; Thou gav'st this flesh;-Ah take this flesh again!" spare their grief, I ceas'd, nor tear let fall; Το And we that day and all the next remain In dreadful silence! -we were silent all! O earth! why didst not ope thy womb, and hide Thy suff'ring sons, relentless to our call? And now the fourth dạy came, when at my side Poor Gaddo fell, and falt'ring faintly said "Why dost not help me, father ?"-spake and died! And I on each cold corse began to crawl, Rolling his wild eyes, and as, hunger-led, Gaunt mastiffs gnaw a bone, he turn'd and tore Thy neighbours punish not a deed so base, What! though for deeds of darkest mischief done, Such woes the father's treasons might demand, Why for his crimes devote each guiltless son? Brigata, Uguccione, and the pair I nam'd before,-whose youth, accursed town! Allow'd not in their father's crimes to share! SONNETS. On Solitude. Let the lone hermit praise the darkling dell Save where the Fairies weave their magic round, Or save, while echo's voice returns the sound, The foliage, peeps "the human face divine." |