He wipes off with the robe; and he girds now his loins as of yore, And feels slow for the armlets of price, with the clasp set before. He is Saul, ye remember in glory, ere error had bent The broad brow from the daily communion; and still, though much spent Be the life and the bearing that front you, the same God did choose To receive what a man may waste, desecrate, never quite lose. So sank he along by the tent-prop till, stayed by the pile Of his armour and war-cloak and garments, he leaned there awhile, And sat out my singing,-one arm round the tent-prop, to raise His bent head, and the other hung slack-till I touched on the praise 220 I foresaw from all men in all time, to the man patient there; And thus ended, the harp falling forward. Then first I was 'ware That he sat, as I say, with my head just above his vast knees Which were thrust out on each side around me, like oak roots which please To encircle a lamb when it slumbers. I looked up to know If the best I could do had brought solace; he spoke not, but slow Lifted up the hand slack at his side, till he laid it with care Soft and grave, but in mild settled will, on my brow: through my hair The large fingers were pushed, and he bent back my head, with kind power All my face back, intent to peruse it, as men do a flower. 230 Thus held he me there with his great eyes that scrutinized mine And oh, all my heart how it loved him! but where was the sign? I yearned "Could I help thee, my father, inventing a bliss, I would add, to that life of the past, both the future and this; I would give thee new life altogether, as good, ages hence, As this moment,-had love but the warrant, love's heart to dispense!" XVI Then the truth came upon me. XVII "I have gone the whole round of creation: I saw and I spoke: I, a work of God's hand for that purpose, received in my brain And pronounced on the rest of his handworkreturned him again I spoke His creation's approval or censure: as I saw: 240 I report, as a man may of God's work-all's love, yet all's law. Now I lay down the judgeship he lent me. Each faculty tasked To perceive him, has gained an abyss, where a dewdrop was asked. Have I knowledge? confounded it shrivels at Wisdom laid bare. Have I forethought? how purblind, how blank to the Infinite Care! Do I task any faculty highest, to image success? I but open my eyes,-and perfection, no more and no less, In the kind I imagined, full-fronts me, and God is seen God In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod. And 250 thus looking within and around me, I ever renew But I sink the pretension as fearing a man may o'ertake God's own speed in the one way of love: I abstain for love's sake. -What, my soul? see thus far and no farther!? when doors great and small, Nine-and-ninety flew ope at our touch, should the hundredth appal? No harp more In the least things have faith, yet distrust in the greatest of all? -no song more! outbroke Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ulti- To look that, even that in the face too! Why mate gift, is it I dare That I doubt his own love can compete with Think but lightly of such impuissance? What it? Here, the parts shift? stops my despair? Here, the creature surpass the Creator, the This;- 't is not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do! end, what Began? Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all See the King-I would help him but cannot, the wishes fall through. 270 poor to enrich, for this man, And dare doubt He alone shall not help him, Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow who yet alone can? Would it ever have entered my mind, the bare To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would will, much less power, -knowing which, To bestow on this Saul what I sang of, the I know that my service is perfect. Oh, speak marvellous dower through me now! Of the life he was gifted and filled with? to Would I suffer for him that I love? So make such a soul, wouldst thou-so wilt thou! Such a body, and then such an earth for in- So shall crown thee the topmost, ineffablest, sphering the whole? uttermost crownAnd doth it not enter my mind (as my warm And thy love fill infinitude wholly, nor leave tears attest) up nor down These good things being given, to go on, and One spot for the creature to stand in! no breath, 300 It is by give one more, the best! Ay, to save and redeem and restore him, main- | Turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation joins tain at the height issue with death! This perfection,-succeed with life's day-spring, As thy Love is discovered almighty, almighty death's minute of night? be proved 280 Interpose at the difficult minute, snatch Saul Thy power, that exists with and for it, of the mistake, being Beloved! Saul the failure, the ruin he seems now, and He who did most, shall bear most; the strongest bid him awake shall stand the most weak. From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to 'T is the weakness in strength, that I cry for! find himself set my flesh, that I seek Clear and safe in new light and new life,-a In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. O Saul, new harmony yet it shall be To be run, and continued, and ended-who A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man knows?-or endure! like to me, 310 The man taught enough by life's dream, of the Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever: a 320 Out in fire the strong pain of pent knowledge: | And, just because I was thrice as old In the shuddering forests' held breath; in the But the time will come,-at last it will, sudden wind-thrills; In the startled wild beasts that bore off, each with eye sidling still Though averted with wonder and dread; in the birds stiff and chill That rose heavily, as I approached them, made stupid with awe: 330 32 When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say) In the lower earth, in the years long still, E'en the serpent that slid away silent, he felt And what you would do with me, in fine, 39 In the new life come in the old one's stead. the new law. What, 't is past midnight, and you go the And his weapon in the other, yet unwiped! rounds, And here you catch me at an alley's end Master-a... Cosimo of the Medici, 40 It's not your chance to have a bit of chalk, Here's spring come, and the nights one makes To roam the town and sing out carnival, d'And I've been three weeks shut within my mew, A-painting for the great man, saints and saints And saints again. I could not paint all night— 50 I' the house that caps the corner. Boh! you Ouf! I leaned out of window for fresh air. were best! There came a hurry of feet and little feet, A sweep of lute strings, laughs, and whifts of song,Flower o' the broom, Remember and tell me, the day you're hanged, 20 But you, sir, it concerns you that your knaves Take away love, and our earth is a tomb! streets I let Lisa go, and what good in life since? And count fair prize what comes into their Flower o' the thyme-and so on. net? He's Judas to a tittle, that man is! Just such a face! Why, sir, you make amends. face His, elbowing on his comrade in the door With the pike and lantern,-for the slave that holds John Baptist's head a-dangle by the hair With one hand (Look you, now," as who should say) 1 mend a little 2 Mediterranean sardines. went.3 Round they 70 If I've been merry, what matter who knows? And so as I was stealing back again the new spirit was manifested in the change To get to bed and have a bit of sleep from religious and symbolical subjects--haloed Ere I rise up to-morrow and go work saints and choiring angels-to portraits and scenes from human life and the world of na-On Jerome knocking at his poor old breast tore, or to religious pictures thoroughly hu- With his great round stone to subdue the flesh, manized. The poem was suggested by a picture of the "Coronation of the Virgin" (de- You snap me of the sudden. Ah, I see! scribed in lines 347 ff.) which is in the Though your eye twinkles still, you shake your Academy of Fine Arts at Florence; the inciheaddents of the life of Fra Filippo Lippi (1406?1469) were obtained from Vasari's Lires of the Painters. He was first a monk. but he broke away from the Carmine, or Carmelite monastery, and came under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, the great banker. patron of art and literature, and practical ruler of the Florentine Republic. It is said that his patron once shut him up in his palace in order to restrain his roving propensities and keep him at work on some frescoes he was painting. The poem opens with his capture on this escapade by the watchmen. Mine's shaved-a monk, you say-the sting's in If Master Cosimo announced himself, 3 I. e., took up the song in turn. 4 The Church of San Lorenzo. 5 St. Jerome, one of the early church fathers. I was a baby when my mother died And father died and left me in the street. 90 While I stood munching my first bread that month: "So, boy, you're minded,'' quoth the good fat father, Wiping his own mouth, 't was refection-time,— "To quit this very miserable world? Will you renounce" "the mouthful of bread?" thought I; By no means! Brief, they made a monk of me; I did renounce the world, its pride and greed, Palace, farm, villa, shop, and banking-house, Trash, such as these poor devils of Medici 100 Have given their hearts to-all at eight years old. Well, sir, I found in time, you may be sure, "T was not for nothing-the good bellyful, The warm serge and the rope that goes all round, And day-long blessed idleness beside! Not overmuch their way, I must confess. All the Latin I construe is "amo," I love! 120 His bone from the heap of offal in the street,Why, soul and sense of him grow sharp alike, He learns the look of things, and none the less For admonition from the hunger-pinch. 6 taking part in a religious procession (as at one of the sacraments) 7 The city magistrates. 129 I had a store of such remarks, be sure, "Nay," quoth the Prior, "turn him out, d'ye say? In no wise. Lose a crow and catch a lark. 140 And put the front on it that ought to be!" Never was such prompt disemburdening. (Whose sad face on the cross sees only this On tiptoe, said a word, dropped in a loaf, 160 Her pair of earrings and a bunch of flowers (The brute took growling), prayed, and so was gone. I painted all, then cried ""T is ask and have; Choose, for more's ready!"-laid the ladder flat, And showed my covered bit of cloister-wall. The monks closed in a circle and praised loud Till checked, taught what to see and not to see, Being simple bodies,-"That's the very man! Look at the boy who stoops to pat the dog! That woman's like the Prior's niece who comes 8 A book of antiphons, or responsive songs. 9 A monastic order founded by St. Romuald at Camaldoli, near Florence. 10 Dominicans. 11 The Dominicans wore black robes, the Carmelites white. 12 pilferings |