Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TASSO, by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TASSO, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: No access to the duke! You have not said
Last Line: On whom they fell!


MADDALO

No access to the Duke! You have not said
That the Count Maddalo would speak with him?

PIGNA

Did you inform his Grace that Signor Pigna
Waits with state papers for his signature?

MALPIGLIO

The Lady Leonora cannot know
That I have written a sonnet to her fame
In which I Venus and Adonis.
You should not take my gold and serve me not.

ALBANO

In truth I told her, and she smiled and said,
'If I am Venus, thou, coy Poesy,
Art the Adonis whom I love, and he
The Erymanthian boar that wounded him.'
Oh, trust to me, Signor Malpiglio,
Those nods and smiles were favors worth the zechin.

MALPIGLIO

The words are twisted in some double sense
That I reach not; the smiles fell not on me.

PIGNA

How are the Duke and Duchess occupied?

ALBANO

Buried in some strange talk. The Duke was leaning,
His finger on his brow, his lips unclosed.
The Princess sate within the window-seat,
And so her face was hid; but on her knee
Her hands were clasped, veined, and pale as snow,
And quivering -- young Tasso, too, was there.

MADDALO

Thou seest on whom from thine own worshipped heaven
Thou drawest down smiles -- they did not rain on thee.

MALPIGLIO

Would they were parching lightnings for his sake
On whom they fell!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net