Unless you call me, all the same, Familiarly by my pet name,

20

Which if the Three should hear you call,
And me reply to, would proclaim
At once our secret to them all.
Ask of me, too, command me, blame,- 25
Do, break down the partition-wall
'Twixt us, the daylight world beholds
Curtained in dusk and splendid folds!
What's left but-all of me to take?
I am the Three's: prevent them, slake
Your thirst! 'Tis said, the Arab sage,
In practising with gems, can loose
Their subtle spirit in his cruce1
And leave but ashes: so, sweet mage,
Leave them my ashes when thy use
Sucks out my soul, thy heritage!

He sings

Past we glide, and past, and past!
What's that poor Agnese doing

Where they make the shutters fast?
Gray Zanobi's just a-wooing

To his couch the purchased bride: Past we glide!

Past we glide, and past, and past!
Why's the Pucci Palace flaring

Like a beacon to the blast?

Guests by hundreds, not one caring

If the dear host's neck were wried:
Past we glide!

30

35

Till a ruddier ray

40

45

75

She sings

He speaks, musing

Lie back; could thought of mine improve

you?

From this shoulder let there spring

A wing; from this, another wing;
Wings, not legs and feet, shall move you!
Snow-white must they spring, to blend 91
With your flesh, but I intend
They shall deepen to the end,

135

Of the staidness and reserve,
And formal lines without a curve,
In the same child's playing-face?
No two windows look one way
O'er the small sea-water thread
Below them. Ah, the autumn day
I, passing, saw you overhead!
First, out a cloud of curtain blew,
Then a sweet cry, and last came you— 140
To catch your lory2 that must needs
Escape just then, of all times then,
To peck a tall plant's fleecy seeds,
And make me happiest of men.

I scarce could breathe to see you reach 145
So far back o'er the balcony

To catch him ere he climbed too high
Above you in the Smyrna peach,
That quick the round smooth cord of
gold,

This coiled hair on your head, unrolled, 150
Fell down you like a gorgeous snake
The Roman girls were wont, of old,
When Rome there was, for coolness' sake
To let lie curling o'er their bosoms.
Dear lory, may his beak retain
Ever its delicate rose stain

As if the wounded lotus-blossoms
Had marked their thief to know again!

155

161

164

170

Stay longer yet, for others' sake
Than mine! What should your chamber do?
-With all its rarities that ache
In silence while day lasts, but wake
At night-time and their life renew,
Suspended just to pleasure you
Who brought against their will together
These objects, and, while day lasts, weave
Around them such a magic tether
That dumb they look: your harp, believe,
With all the sensitive tight strings
Which dare not speak, now to itself
Breathes slumberously, as if some elf
Went in and out the chords, his wings
Make murmur wheresoe'er they graze,
As an angel may, between the maze
Of midnight palace-pillars, on
And on, to sow God's plagues, have gone
Through guilty glorious Babylon.
And while such murmurs flow, the nymph
Bends o'er the harp-top from her shell
As the dry limpet for the lymph3
Come with a tune he knows so well.
And how your statues' hearts must swell!

2 parrot.

175

180

⚫ spring.

And how your pictures must descend
To see each other, friend with friend!
Oh, could you take them by surprise, 185
You'd find Schidone's eager Duke
Doing the quaintest courtesies

To that prim saint by Haste-thee-Luke!
And, deeper into her rock den,
Bold Castelfranco's Magdalen
You'd find retreated from the ken
Of that robed counsel-keeping Ser1—
As if the Tizian thinks of her,
And is not, rather, gravely bent
On seeing for himself what toys
Are these, his progeny invent,
What litter now the board employs
Whereon he signed a document
That got him murdered! Each enjoys
Its night so well, you cannot break
The sport up, so, indeed must make
More stay with me, for others' sake.

She speaks

190

195

200

To-morrow, if a harp-string, say,
Is used to tie the jasmine back
That overfloods my room with sweets, 205
Contrive your Zorzi somehow meets
My Zanze! If the ribbon's black,
The Three are watching: keep away!

Your gondola-let Zorzi wreathe

A mesh of water-weeds about

Its prow, as if he unaware

210

Sleeping safe on the bosom of the plain, 5 Cared-for till cock-crow:

Look out if yonder be not day again Rimming the rock-row!

That's the appropriate country; there, men's thought, Rarer, intenser,

ΙΟ

That I may throw a paper out
As you and he go underneath.

There's Zanze's vigilant taper; safe are

Chafes in the censer.

thorpe and croft,

give!

Leaden before, his eyes grew dross of

lead:

Tussis 2 attacked him.

"Now, master, take a little rest!"-not

Step two abreast, the way winds nar

rowly!)

Not a whit troubled,

Back to his studies, fresher than at first, Fierce as a dragon

55

"Up with the curtain!"

This man said rather, "Actual life comes

He

next?

Patience a moment!

(soul-hydroptic 3 with a sacred thirst)

Sucked at the flagon.

Heedless of far gain,

05