Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OBSEQUIES IN ROME, by BAYARD TAYLOR


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OBSEQUIES IN ROME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Victor emanuel! - of prophetic name
Last Line: Who made her italy!
Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard
Subject(s): Life; Rome, Italy; Victor Emmanuel Ii, King Of Italy


I.

VICTOR EMANUEL! -- of prophetic name,
Who, crowned in sore defeat,
Caught out of blood, disaster, and retreat,
With wounded hands, a soldier's simple fame, --
Content, had that been all,
And most content, victoriously to fall: --
Life saved thee for a people's holiest aim,
And leaves thee VICTOR, in thy pall!
"GOD WITH US" may that people say,
Who walk behind thy conquering dust, to-day:
Yea, all thine Italy
Made one, at last, and proudly free,
Blesses thy sire's baptismal prophecy!

II.

Since, over-coarse to be the Empire's lord,
Herulian Odoaker fell
Among spilled goblets, by the Gothic sword,
In old Ravenna's palace citadel;
And, after him, Theodoric strove
To own the land he could not choose but love; --
And both, from no deficiency of power,
But failing heart and brain
That might revivify the beauty slain,
Builded barbaric thrones for one brief hour; --
Since, in a glorious vision cast
By some narcotic opiate of the Past,
Rienzi sought to be
Brutus in deed, Caesar in victory, --
The Italy, that once was Rome,
Dismembered, sighed for her deliverance,
Saw her Republics die,
Leaned vainly on the broken reed of France,
Till, when despair seemed nigh,
She knew herself, and, starting from her trance,
Summoned the Victor, who hath led her home!

III.

He knew his people, and his soul was strong
To wait till they knew him:
The hand that holds a sceptre dare not shake
From the quick blood that burns at every wrong.
With Europe watchful, cold and grim
Behind him, and the triple-hooded snake
Coiled in his path, he went
Through changing gusts of doubt and discontent,
Till all he could have dreamed of, came to him!
But now his people know him! -- now,
Since Death's pure coronet is on his brow,
Italian eyes are dim!
Now to her ancient glories sovereign Rome
Adds one more glory: sorrow falls
O'er all the circuit of the Aurelian walls, --
Even from Montorio on Saint Peter's dome:
And where on warm Pamfili-Dorian meads
Fresh dew the daisy feeds;
And breathes in every tall Borghese pine,
And moans on Aventine;
And -- could the voice of all desire awake
That once was loud for Italy's dear sake, --
A hymn would burst from each dumb burial-stone
Beside the Cestian pyramid,
Where Keats's, Shelley's dust is hid,
In dithvrambic triumph o'er his own!

IV.

Who walk behind his bier?
Behold the solemn phantoms! -- who are they,
The stern precursors that arise, to-day,
Breathing of many a fiery year
And clad in drapery of a darker time?
These are the dead who saw,
Too soon, the world's diviner law, --
Too early dreamed their people's dream sublime!
He follows them, who lived to make that dream
A principle supreme,
Dome-browed Mazzini, -- he, who planted sure
Its corner-stone, Cavour!
Then, first among the living, that gray chief
Who wears, at last, his Roman laurel's leaf,
To conquer which he rent and shattered down
His rich Sicilian crown.
Ah, bend thee, Garibaldi! -- be not loth
To trust the son of him thou gav'st a land,
Or kiss the stainless hand
Of her whose name is pearl and daisy both!
Such love, to-day, thy people give
To him who died, such trust to them who live.

V.

Cunning nor Force shall overthrow
The State whose fabric has been builded so.
Under the Pantheon's dome,
The undying Victor still shall reign
O'er one free land that dare not feel a chain, --
Whose mighty heart is Rome!
Still, from the ramparts of the Rhaetian snow,
Far down the realms of corn and wine,
Back-boned by Apennine,
To capes that breast the warm Calabrian Sea,
A single race shall know
One love, one right, one loyalty: --
Still from his ashes Italy shall grow,
Who made her Italy!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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