Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Leonardo’s “Last Supper” at Milan
By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)C
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!
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
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!