32Savonarola to His Fate (1498) I dreamt I drifted on an oarless raft, And that I knew the stream I was upon Was whirling on to join the Phlegethon As straight and certain as a cross-bow shaft; And in my agony I sob...

34Columbus to His Fetters (1502) Ye solemn fetters, that I love to keep, An iron proof of man's injustice here, Until such day, as, laid within my bier, Ye shall surround me in my final sleep: Each link is the rewar...

24ELEANOR BRACKEN TO MARGARET GREY.1460May every little shining pin I drive Into thy waxen image make thee yell As in the endless echoing vaults of Hell Men yell unheard,—yet leave thee still alive,That I may li...

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...