Robert Browning

“ God's Truce—or trick to supersede
"The very Use of Strength, is safe. Indeed
"We trench upon the future. Who is found
"To take next step, next age—trail o'er the ground—
"Shall I say, gourd-like?—not the flower's display
"Nor the root's prowess, but the plenteous way
"O' the plant—produced by joy and sorrow, whence
"Unfeeling and yet feeling, strongest thence?
"Knowledge by stress of merely Knowledge? No—
"E'en were Sordello ready to forego
"His life for this, 't were overleaping work
"Some one has first to do, howe'er it irk,
"Nor stray a foot's breadth from the beaten road. ”

“ Why count as one
"The first step, with the last step? What is gone
"Except Rome's aëry magnificence,
"That last step you 'd take first?—an evidence
"You were God: be man now! Let those glances fall!
"The basis, the beginning step of all,
"Which proves you just a man—is that gone too? ”

“ Reign thy reign
"And serve thy frolic service, Charlemagne!
"—The very child of over-joyousness,
"Unfeeling thence, strong therefore: Strength by stress
"Of Strength comes of that forehead confident,
"Those widened eyes expecting heart's content,
"A calm as out of just-quelled noise ”

“ Ecelin,—only Naddo 's never gone!
—Labours, this moonrise, what the Master meant:
"Is Squarcialupo speckled?—purulent,
"I 'd say, but when was Providence put out?
"He carries somehow handily about
"His spite nor fouls himself!" Goito's vines
Stand like a cheat detected—stark rough lines,
The moon breaks through, a grey mean scale against
The vault where, this eve's Maiden, thou remain'st
Like some fresh martyr, eyes fixed—who can tell? ”

“ About me, faces! and they flock,
"The earnest faces. What shall I unlock
"By song? behold me prompt, whate'er it be,
"To minister: how much can mortals see
"Of Life? No more than so? I take the task
"And marshal you Life's elemental masque,
"Show Men, on evil or on good lay stress,
"This light, this shade make prominent, suppress
"All ordinary hues that softening blend
"Such natures with the level. Apprehend
"Which sinner is, which saint, if I allot
"Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, a blaze or blot,
"To those you doubt concerning! I enwomb
"Some wretched Friedrich with his red-hot tomb ”

“ Should pick up, and set store by,—far from blame,
Plant o'er his hearse, convinced his better part
Survived him. "Rather tear men out the heart
"O' the truth!"—Sordello muttered, and renewed
His propositions for the Multitude. ”

“ My deep of life, I know
"Is unavailing e'en to poorly show"...
(For here the Chief immeasurably yawned)
. . . "Deeds in their due gradation till Song dawned—
"The fullest effluence of the finest mind,
"All in degree, no way diverse in kind
"From minds about it, minds which, more or less,
"Lofty or low, move seeking to impress
"Themselves on somewhat; but one mind has climbed
"Step after step, by just ascent sublimed. ”

“ Speak plainer! Is 't so sure
"God's church lives by a King's investiture?
"Look to last step! A staggering—a shock—
"What 's mere sand is demolished, while the rock
"Endures: a column of black fiery dust
"Blots heaven—that help was prematurely thrust
"Aside, perchance!—but air clears, nought 's erased
"Of the true outline. Thus much being firm based,
"The other was a scaffold. See him stand
"Buttressed upon his mattock, Hildebrand
"Of the huge brain-mask welded ply o'er ply
"As in a forge; it buries either eye
"White and extinct, that stupid brow ”

“ Of such
"Am I—whom pride of this elates too much?
"Safe, rather say, 'mid troops of peers again;
"I, with my words, hailed brother of the train
"Deeds once sufficed: for, let the world roll back,
"Who fails, through deeds howe'er diverse, retrack
"My purpose still, my task? A teeming crust—
"Air, flame, earth, wave at conflict! ”