Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Milan | | Leonardo’s “Last Supper” at Milan | | Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) |
| | | COME! if thy heart be pure, thy spirits calm. | |
| If thou hast no harsh feelings, or but those | |
| Which self-reproach inflicts,—ah no, bestows,— | |
| Her wounds, here probed, find here their gentlest balm. | |
| O the sweet sadness of that lifted palm! | 5 |
| The dreadful deed to come his lips disclose; | |
| Yet love and awe, not wrath, that countenance shows, | |
| As though they sang even now that ritual psalm | |
| Which closed the feast piacular. Time hath done | |
| His work on this fair picture; but that face | 10 |
| His outrage awes. Stranger! the mist of years | |
| Between thee hung and half its heavenly grace, | |
| Hangs there, a fitting veil; nor that alone,— | |
| Gaze on it also through a veil of tears! | | | | |
|
|
