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(From Marino Faliero, Act V, Scene III)
I SPEAK to Time and to Eternity, | |
| Of which I grow a portion, not to man. | |
| Ye elements! in which to be resolved | |
| I hasten, let my voice be as a spirit | |
| Upon you! Ye blue waves! which bore my banner, | 5 |
| Ye winds! which fluttered o’er as if you loved it, | |
| And filled my swelling sails as they were wafted | |
| To many a triumph! Thou, my native earth, | |
| Which I have bled for, and thou foreign earth, | |
| Which drank this willing blood from many a wound! | 10 |
| Ye stones, in which my gore will not sink, but | |
| Reek up to Heaven! Ye skies, which will receive it! | |
| Thou sun! which shinest on these things, and thou! | |
| Who kindlest and who quenchest suns!—Attest! | |
| I am not innocent,—but are these guiltless? | 15 |
| I perish, but not unavenged; far ages | |
| Float up from the abyss of time to be, | |
| And show these eyes, before they close, the doom | |
| Of this proud city, and I leave my curse | |
| On her and hers forever! Yes, the hours | 20 |
| Are silently engendering of the day, | |
| When she, who built ’gainst Attila a bulwark, | |
| Shall yield, and bloodlessly and basely yield | |
| Unto a bastard Attila, without | |
| Shedding so much blood in her last defence | 25 |
| As these old veins, oft drained in shielding her, | |
| Shall pour in sacrifice. She shall be bought | |
| And sold, and be an appanage to those | |
| Who shall despise her! She shall stoop to be | |
| A province for an empire, petty town | 30 |
| In lieu of capital, with slaves for senates, | |
| Beggars for nobles, panders for a people! | |
| Then when the Hebrew in thy palaces, | |
| The Hun in thy high places, and the Greek | |
| Walks o’er thy mart, and smiles on it for his! | 35 |
| When thy patricians beg their bitter bread | |
| In narrow streets, and in their shameful need | |
| Make their nobility a plea for pity! | |
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