Gemma to Dante

THOU hast been long in coming through the wide
And distant plain. What vision hast thou seen
Where the late iris stretcheth through the green
Long lines of gold, and where the silent tide
Creeps through the dim salt marsh ? Here at my side
The deepening shadows lengthened; I have been
Weary with watching for long hours between
The day and darkness while my task I plied.
What met thy gaze ? I hear the people say
Thou art possessed of evil; they have turned
To mock and scorn; again I hear them cry,
“He hath gone down to hell this very day,
And on his countenance the things he learned
Are stamped forever and eternally.”

My gaze is sad because my saddened soul
Accustomed is to loneliness and care,
While thou in Heaven dwellest with the fair
New forms of thy creation, and the whole
Wide universe sustains thee. I a dole
Of joy have for my portion, while I bear
Thy poverty with thee, and breathe the air
Of pain for thee, who dost my fate control.
Thou walkest with the shadows of thy dream,
I seek with anxious toil thy children’s bread,
And bear the look of scorn thou heedest never ;
The waters of thy life in constant stream
Sweep towards a goal the which I fear and dread,
I, bound to thee, yet parted from thee ever.

Thou’st heard the weak complaining of my will,
Thou know’st the joyless pulsing of my heart;
In thy sublimer destiny no part
Have I, yet to thy bidding, who art still
My one desire, I bow me, while I thrill
To thy strange power, thou strong of soul who art
My glory and my pain, whose thought doth dart
From utmost ends of space God’s world to fill.
The nightingale may die where Arno floweth,
The flower that Giotto wrought, still poised in air,
May crumble and decay, my name shall fade
In nothingness, but through all time there goeth
Thy word, thy voice, thy love, and thy despair,
The honor of the world before thee laid.