Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LEONARDO'S LAST SUPPER AT MILAN, by AUBREY DE VERE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LEONARDO'S LAST SUPPER AT MILAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Come! If thy heart be pure, thy spirits calm
Subject(s): Italy


COME! if thy heart be pure, thy spirits calm,
If thou hast no dark memories, or but those
Pure 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 count'nance 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
They see it best who see it through their tears!






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