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

“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.

Table of Contents

Is it the same Sordello in the dusk

As at the dawn? — merely a perished husk

Now, that arose a power fit to build

Up Rome again? The proud conception chilled

So soon? Ay, watch that latest dream of thine

— A Rome indebted to no Palatine —

Drop arch by arch, Sordello! Art possessed

Of thy wish now, rewarded for thy quest

To-day among Ferrara’s squalid sons?

Are this and this and this the shining ones

Meet for the Shining City? Sooth to say,

Your favoured tenantry pursue their way

After a fashion! This companion slips

On the smooth causey, t’ other blinkard trips

At his mooned sandal. “Leave to lead the brawls

“Here i’ the atria?” No, friend! He that sprawls

On aught but a stibadium… what his dues

Who puts the lustral vase to such an use?

Oh, huddle up the day’s disasters! March,

Ye runagates, and drop thou, arch by arch,

Rome!

Yet before they quite disband — a whim —

Study mere shelter, now, for him, and him,