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The Prophecy of Dante[;] Canto the Fourth

  1. 1Many are Poets who have never penned
  2. 2Their inspiration, and perchance the best:
  3. 3They felt, and loved, and died, but would not lend
  4. 4Their thoughts to meaner beings; they compressed
  5. 5The God within them, and rejoined the stars
  6. 6Unlaurelled upon earth, but far more blessed
  7. 7Than those who are degraded by the jars
  8. 8Of Passion, and their frailties linked to fame,
  9. 9Conquerors of high renown, but full of scars.
  10. 10Many are Poets but without the name;
  11. 11For what is Poesy but to create
  12. 12From overfeeling Good or Ill; and aim
  13. 13At an external life beyond our fate,
  14. 14And be the new Prometheus of new men,
  15. 15Bestowing fire from Heaven, and then, too late,
  16. 16Finding the pleasure given repaid with pain,
  17. 17And vultures to the heart of the bestower,
  18. 18Who, having lavished his high gift in vain,
  19. 19Lies to his lone rock by the sea-shore?
  20. 20So be it: we can bear.--But thus all they
  21. 21Whose Intellect is an o'ermastering Power
  22. 22Which still recoils from its encumbering clay
  23. 23Or lightens it to spirit, whatsoe'er
  24. 24The form which their creations may essay,
  25. 25Are bards; the kindled Marble's bust may wear
  26. 26More poesy upon its speaking brow
  27. 27Than aught less than the Homeric page may bear;
  28. 28One noble stroke with a whole life may glow,
  29. 29Or deify the canvass till it shine
  30. 30With beauty so surpassing all below,
  31. 31That they who kneel to Idols so divine
  32. 32Break no commandment, for high Heaven is there
  33. 33Transfused, transfigurated: and the line
  34. 34Of Poesy, which peoples but the air
  35. 35With Thought and Beings of our thought reflected,
  36. 36Can do no more: then let the artist share
  37. 37The palm, he shares the peril, and dejected
  38. 38Faints o'er the labour unapproved--Alas!
  39. 39Despair and Genius are too oft connected.
  40. 40Within the ages which before me pass
  41. 41Art shall resume and equal even the sway
  42. 42Which with Apelles and old Phidias
  43. 43She held in Hellas' unforgotten day.
  44. 44Ye shall be taught by Ruin to revive
  45. 45The Grecian forms at least from their decay,
  46. 46And Roman souls at last again shall live
  47. 47In Roman works wrought by Italian hands,
  48. 48And temples, loftier than the old temples, give
  49. 49New wonders to the World; and while still stands
  50. 50The austere Pantheon, into heaven shall soar
  51. 51A Dome, its image, while the base expands
  52. 52Into a fane surpassing all before,
  53. 53Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in: ne'er
  54. 54Such sight hath been unfolded by a door
  55. 55As this, to which all nations shall repair,
  56. 56And lay their sins at this huge gate of Heaven.
  57. 57And the bold Architect unto whose care
  58. 58The daring charge to raise it shall be given,
  59. 59Whom all Arts shall acknowledge as their Lord,
  60. 60Whether into the marble chaos driven
  61. 61His chisel bid the Hebrew, at whose word
  62. 62Israel left Egypt, stop the waves in stone,
  63. 63Or hues of Hell be by his pencil poured
  64. 64Over the damned before the Judgement-throne,
  65. 65Such as I saw them, such as all shall see,
  66. 66Or fanes be built of grandeur yet unknown--
  67. 67The Stream of his great thoughts shall spring from me
  68. 68The Ghibelline, who traversed the three realms
  69. 69Which form the Empire of Eternity.
  70. 70Amidst the clash of swords, and clang of helms,
  71. 71The age which I anticipate, no less
  72. 72Shall be the Age of Beauty, and while whelms
  73. 73Calamity the nations with distress,
  74. 74The Genius of my Country shall arise,
  75. 75A Cedar towering o'er the Wilderness,
  76. 76Lovely in all its branches to all eyes,
  77. 77Fragrant as fair, and recognised afar,
  78. 78Wafting its native incense through the skies.
  79. 79Sovereigns shall pause amidst their sport of war,
  80. 80Weaned for an hour from blood, to turn and gaze
  81. 81On canvass or on stone; and they who mar
  82. 82All beauty upon earth, compelled to praise,
  83. 83Shall feel the power of that which they destroy;
  84. 84And Art's mistaken gratitude shall raise
  85. 85To tyrants, who but take her for a toy,
  86. 86Emblems and monuments, and prostitute
  87. 87Her charms to Pontiffs proud, who but employ
  88. 88The man of Genius as the meanest brute
  89. 89To bear a burthen, and to serve a need,
  90. 90To sell his labours, and his soul to boot.
  91. 91Who toils for nations may be poor indeed,
  92. 92But free; who sweats for Monarchs is no more
  93. 93Than the gilt Chamberlain, who, clothed and feed,
  94. 94Stands sleek and slavish, bowing at his door.
  95. 95Oh, Power that rulest and inspirest! how
  96. 96Is it that they on earth, whose earthly power
  97. 97Is likest thine in heaven in outward show,
  98. 98Least like to thee in attributes divine,
  99. 99Tread on the universal necks that bow,
  100. 100And then assure us that their rights are thine?
  101. 101And how is it that they, the Sons of Fame,
  102. 102Whose inspiration seems to them to shine
  103. 103From high, they whom the nations oftest name,
  104. 104Must pass their days in penury or pain,
  105. 105Or step to grandeur through the paths of shame,
  106. 106And wear a deeper brand and gaudier chain?
  107. 107Or if their Destiny be born aloof
  108. 108From lowliness, or tempted thence in vain,
  109. 109In their own souls sustain a harder proof,
  110. 110The inner war of Passions deep and fierce?
  111. 111Florence! when thy harsh sentence razed my roof,
  112. 112I loved thee; but the vengeance of my verse,
  113. 113The hate of injuries which every year
  114. 114Makes greater, and accumulates my curse,
  115. 115Shall live, outliving all thou holdest dear--
  116. 116Thy pride, thy wealth, thy freedom, and even that,
  117. 117The most infernal of all evils here,
  118. 118The sway of petty tyrants in a state;
  119. 119For such sway is not limited to Kings,
  120. 120And Demagogues yield to them but in date,
  121. 121As swept off sooner; in all deadly things,
  122. 122Which make men hate themselves, and one another,
  123. 123In discord, cowardice, cruelty, all that springs
  124. 124From Death the Sin-born's incest with his mother,
  125. 125In rank oppression in its rudest shape,
  126. 126The faction Chief is but the Sultan's brother,
  127. 127And the worst Despot's far less human ape.
  128. 128Florence! when this lone spirit, which so long
  129. 129Yearned, as the captive toiling at escape,
  130. 130To fly back to thee in despite of wrong,
  131. 131An exile, saddest of all prisoners,
  132. 132Who has the whole world for a dungeon strong,
  133. 133Seas, mountains, and the horizon's verge for bars,
  134. 134Which shut him from the sole small spot of earth
  135. 135Where--whatsoe'er his fate--he still were hers,
  136. 136His Country's, and might die where he had birth--
  137. 137Florence! when this lone Spirit shall return
  138. 138To kindred Spirits, thou wilt feel my worth,
  139. 139And seek to honour with an empty urn
  140. 140The ashes thou shalt ne'er obtain--Alas!
  141. 141"What have I done to thee, my People?" Stern
  142. 142Are all thy dealings, but in this they pass
  143. 143The limits of Man's common malice, for
  144. 144All that a citizen could be I was--
  145. 145Raised by thy will, all thine in peace or war--
  146. 146And for this thou hast warred with me.--'Tis done:
  147. 147I may not overleap the eternal bar
  148. 148Built up between us, and will die alone,
  149. 149Beholding with the dark eye of a Seer
  150. 150The evil days to gifted souls foreshown,
  151. 151Foretelling them to those who will not hear;
  152. 152As in the old time, till the hour be come
  153. 153When Truth shall strike their eyes through many a tear,
  154. 154And make them own the Prophet in his tomb.