Robert Browning - The Complete Poems of Robert Browning - 22 Poetry Collections in One Edition

“And white my cheek, so idly my blood beat,

“Sitting that morn beside the Lady’s feet

“And saying as she prompted; till outburst

“One face from all the faces. Not then first

“I knew it; where in maple chamber glooms,

“Crowned with what sanguine-heart pomegranate blooms,

“Advanced it ever? Men’s acknowledgment

“Sanctioned my own: ‘t was taken, Palma’s bent, —

“Sordello, — recognized, accepted.

“Dumb

“Sat she still scheming. Ecelin would come

“Gaunt, scared, ‘Cesano baffles me,’ he ‘d say:

“‘Better I fought it out, my father’s way!

“‘Strangle Ferrara in its drowning flats,

“‘And you and your Taurello yonder! — what’s

“‘Romano’s business there?’ An hour’s concern

“To cure the froward Chief! — induce return

“As heartened from those overmeaning eyes,

“Wound up to persevere, — his enterprise

“Marked out anew, its exigent of wit

“Apportioned, — she at liberty to sit

“And scheme against the next emergence, I —

“To covet her Taurello-sprite, made fly

“Or fold the wing — to con your horoscope

“For leave command those steely shafts shoot ope,

“Or straight assuage their blinding eagerness

“In blank smooth snow What semblance of success

“To any of my plans for making you

“Mine and Romano’s? Break the first wall through,

“Tread o’er the ruins of the Chief, supplant

“His sons beside, still, vainest were the vaunt:

“There, Salinguerra would obstruct me sheer,

“And the insuperable Tuscan, here,

“Stay me! But one wild eve that Lady died

“In her lone chamber: only I beside:

“Taurello far at Naples, and my sire

“At Padua, Ecelin away in ire

“With Alberic. She held me thus — a clutch

“To make our spirits as our bodies touch —

“And so began flinging the past up heaps

“Of uncouth treasure from their sunless sleeps

“Within her soul; deeds rose along with dreams,

“Fragments of many miserable schemes,

“Secrets, more secrets, then — no, not the last —

“‘Mongst others, like a casual trick o’ the past,

“How … ay, she told me, gathering up her face,

“All left of it, into one arch-grimace

“To die with …

”Friend, ‘t is gone! but not the fear

“Of that fell laughing, heard as now I hear.

“Nor faltered voice, nor seemed her heart grow weak

“When i’ the midst abrupt she ceased to speak

“ — Dead, as to serve a purpose, mark! — for in

“Rushed o’ the very instant Ecelin

“(How summoned, who divines?) — looking as if

“He understood why Adelaide lay stiff

“Already in my arms; for ‘Girl, how must

“‘I manage Este in the matter thrust

“‘Upon me, how unravel your bad coil? —

“‘Since’ (he declared) t is on your brow — a soil

“‘Like hers there!’ then in the same breath, ‘he lacked

“‘No counsel after all, had signed no pact

“‘With devils, nor was treason here or there,

“‘Goito or Vicenza, his affair:

“‘He buried it in Adelaide’s deep grave,

“‘Would begin life afresh, now, — would not slave

“‘For any Friedrich’s nor Taurello’s sake!

“‘What booted him to meddle or to make

“‘In Lombardy?’ And afterward I knew

“The meaning of his promise to undo

“All she had done — why marriages were made,

“New friendships entered on, old followers paid

“With curses for their pains, — new friends’ amaze

“At height, when, passing out by Gate St. Blaise,

“He stopped short in Vicenza, bent his head

“Over a friar’s neck, — ’had vowed,’ he said,

“‘Long since, nigh thirty years, because his wife

“‘And child were saved there, to bestow his life

“‘On God, his gettings on the Church.’

”Exiled

“Within Goito, still one dream beguiled

“My days and nights; ‘t was found, the orb I sought

“To serve, those glimpses came of Fomalhaut,

“No other: but how serve it? — authorize

“You and Romano mingle destinies?

“And straight Romano’s angel stood beside

“Me who had else been Boniface’s bride,

“For Salinguerra ‘t was, with neck low bent,

“And voice lightened to music, (as he meant

“To learn, not teach me,) who withdrew the pall

“From the dead past and straight revived it all,

“Making me see how first Romano waxed,

“Wherefore he waned now, why, if I relaxed

“My grasp (even I!) would drop a thing effete,

“Frayed by itself, unequal to complete

“Its course, and counting every step astray

“A gain so much. Romano, every way

“Stable, a Lombard House now — why start back

“Into the very outset of its track?

“This patching principle which late allied

“Our House with other Houses — what beside

“Concerned the apparition, the first Knight

“Who followed Conrad hither in such plight

“His utmost wealth was summed in his one steed?

“For Ecelo, that prowler, was decreed

“A task, in the beginning hazardous

“To him as ever task can be to us;

“But did the weather-beaten thief despair

“When first our crystal cincture of warm air

“That binds the Trevisan, — as its spice-belt

“(Crusaders say) the tract where Jesus dwelt, —

“Furtive he pierced, and Este was to face —

“Despaired Saponian strength of Lombard grace?

“Tried he at making surer aught made sure,

“Maturing what already was mature?

“No; his heart prompted Ecelo, ‘Confront

“‘Este, inspect yourself. What ‘s nature? Wont.

“‘Discard three-parts your nature, and adopt

“‘The rest as an advantage!’ Old strength propped

“The man who first grew Podestà among

“The Vicentines, no less than, while there sprung

“His palace up in Padua like a threat,

“Their noblest spied a grace, unnoticed yet

“In Conrad’s crew. Thus far the object gained,

“Romano was established — has remained —

“‘For are you not Italian, truly peers

“‘With Este? Azzo better soothes our ears

“‘Than Alberic? or is this lion’s-crine

“‘From over-mounts’ (this yellow hair of mine)

“‘So weak a graft on Agnes Este’s stock?’

“(Thus went he on with something of a mock)

“‘Wherefore recoil, then, from the very fate

“‘Conceded you, refuse to imitate

“‘Your model farther? Este long since left

“‘Being mere Este: as a blade its heft,

“‘Este required the Pope to further him:

“‘And you, the Kaiser — whom your father’s whim

“‘Foregoes or, better, never shall forego

“‘If Palma dare pursue what Ecelo

“‘Commenced, but Ecelin desists from: just

“‘As Adelaide of Susa could intrust

“‘Her donative, — her Piedmont given the Pope,

“‘Her Alpine-pass for him to shut or ope

“Twixt France and Italy, — to the superb

“‘Matilda’s perfecting, — so, lest aught curb

“‘Our Adelaide’s great counter-project for

“‘Giving her Trentine to the Emperor

“‘With passage here from Germany, — shall you

“‘Take it, — my slender plodding talent, too!’

“ — Urged me Taurello with his half-smile

”He

“As Patron of the scattered family

“Conveyed me to his Mantua, kept in bruit

“Azzo’s alliances and Richard’s suit

“Until, the Kaiser excommunicate,