25LEONARDO DA VINCI ON HIS SNAKES.1480 Г.I LOVE to watch them, trickling on the floor, Like Evil's very oozings running free; Now livid blue, now green as green can be, Now almost white, though black an hour before....

21A Voice to Charles VII (1431) A stone is in thy bosom, not a heart; Water is in thy veins instead of blood: Or art thou some stiff painted king of wood, Heartless and tongueless, sitting there apart, While she who...

27LORENZO DE MEDICIS TO HIS LAST AUTUMN.1491.Now falls the autumn in a rain of gold And makes a very Dana; of Earth, Whose breast, beneath the yellow leaves, gives birth To scented sighs as hers 'neath Jove of old....

29Alexander VI to Cesar Borgia (1497) Oh that the world, like a Venetian cup Of bubble glass, when poison enters it, Had, at thy birth, hissed suddenly and split And in a thousand fragments splintered up! Thou call'...

8VENUS TO TANNHAEUSER (1207) Thou art the sunshine of the woods of fir; Thou art the loud brook's song, the wild bee's hum; Thou art the fragrance of the trickling gum That scents the morning like a mountain myrrh. ...

To SleepA flock of sheep that leisurely pass by,One after one; the sound of rain, and beesMurmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky;I have thought of all by turns, and yet do l...

6.BLONDEL TO RICHARD.1194.I ASK the woods and waters where thou art; And oft it seems as if the fir and beech Tried, in their unintelligible speech, To tell the secret they would fain impart.Against what bars sw...

3ROGER OF SICILY TO AZALA;S.1140.Thou hast the silence and imperial tread, The strong and supple beauty of a pard; And oft I wish that I had had thee barr'd In some firm cage, and feel a strange vague dread.At t...

To SleepFond words have oft been spoken to thee, Sleep!And thou hast had thy store of tenderest names;The very sweetest Fancy culls or frames,When thankfulness of heart is strong and deep!Dear Bosom-child we call thee, that dost st...

The KissWhat smouldering senses in death's sick delay Or seizure of malign vicissitude Can rob this body of honour, or denudeThis soul of wedding-raiment worn to-day?For lo! even now my lady's lips did play With these my lip...