Two Nations | Page 4

scorned, and happy; being in fame, Felice, like thy name, Not like thy fortune; father of the fight, Having in hand our light. Ah, happy! for that sudden-swerving hand Flung light on all thy land, Yea, lit blind France with compulsory ray, Driven down a righteous way; Ah, happiest! for from thee the wars began, From thee the fresh springs ran; From thee the lady land that queens the earth Gat as she gave new birth. O sweet mute mouths, O all fair dead of ours, Fair in her eyes as flowers, Fair without feature, vocal without voice, Strong without strength, rejoice! Hear it with ears that hear not, and on eyes That see not let it rise, Rise as a sundawn; be it as dew that drips On dumb and dusty lips; Eyes have ye not, and see it; neither ears, And there is none but hears. This is the same for whom ye bled and wept; She was not dead, but slept. This is that very Italy which was And is and shall not pass.
§ But thou, though all were not well done, O chief, Must thou take shame or grief? Because one man is not as thou or ten, Must thou take shame for men? Because the supreme sunrise is not yet, Is the young dew not wet? Wilt thou not yet abide a little while, Soul without fear or guile, Mazzini,--O our prophet, O our priest, A little while at least? A little hour of doubt and of control, Sustain thy sacred soul; Withhold thine heart, our father, but an hour; Is it not here, the flower, Is it not blown and fragrant from the root, And shall not be the fruit? Thy children, even thy people thou hast made, Thine, with thy words arrayed, Clothed with thy thoughts and girt with thy desires, Yearn up toward thee as fires. Art thou not father, O father, of all these? From thine own Genoese To where of nights the lower extreme lagune Feels its Venetian moon, Nor suckling's mouth nor mother's breast set free But hath that grace through thee. The milk of life on death's unnatural brink Thou gavest them to drink, The natural milk of freedom; and again They drank, and they were men. The wine and honey of freedom and of faith They drank, and cast off death. Bear with them now; thou art holier: yet endure, Till they as thou be pure. Their swords at least that stemmed half Austria's tide Bade all its bulk divide; Else, though fate bade them for a breath's space fall, She had not fallen at all. Not by their hands they made time's promise true; Not by their hands, but through. Nor on Custoza ran their blood to waste, Nor fell their fame defaced Whom stormiest Adria with tumultuous tides Whirls undersea and hides. Not his, who from the sudden-settling deck Looked over death and wreck To where the mother's bosom shone, who smiled As he, so dying, her child; For he smiled surely, dying, to mix his death With her memorial breath; Smiled, being most sure of her, that in no wise, Die whoso will, she dies: And she smiled surely, fair and far above, Wept not, but smiled for love. Thou too, O splendour of the sudden sword That drove the crews abhorred From Naples and the siren-footed strand, Flash from thy master's hand, Shine from the middle summer of the seas To the old Aeolides, Outshine their fiery fumes of burning night, Sword, with thy midday light; Flame as a beacon from the Tyrrhene foam To the rent heart of Rome, From the island of her lover and thy lord, Her saviour and her sword. In the fierce year of failure and of fame, Art thou not yet the same That wast as lightning swifter than all wings In the blind face of kings? When priests took counsel to devise despair, And princes to forswear, She clasped thee, O her sword and flag-bearer And staff and shield to her, O Garibaldi; need was hers and grief, Of thee and of the chief, And of another girt in arms to stand As good of hope and hand, As high of soul and happy, albeit indeed The heart should burn and bleed, So but the spirit shake not nor the breast Swerve, but abide its rest. As theirs did and as thine, though ruin clomb The highest wall of Rome, Though treason stained and spilt her lustral water, And slaves led slaves to slaughter, And priests, praying and slaying, watched them pass From a strange France, alas, That was not freedom; yet when these were past Thy sword and thou stood fast, Till new men seeing thee where Sicilian waves Hear now no sound of slaves,