Mother.Chiara will love to see
That Jupiter an evening-star next June.
Luigi. True, mother. Well for those who live through June!
Great noontides, thunder-storms, all glaring pomps
That triumph at the heels of June the god155
Leading his revel through our leafy world.
Yes, Chiara will be here.
Mother.In June: remember,
Yourself appointed that month for her coming.
Luigi. Was that low noise the echo?
Mother.The night-wind.
She must be grown—with her blue eyes upturned160
As if life were one long and sweet surprise:
In June she comes.
Luigi.We were to see together
The Titian at Treviso. There, again!
[From without is heard the voice of Pippa, singing—
A king lived long ago,
In the morning of the world,165
When earth was nigher heaven than now.
And the king's locks curled,
Disparting o'er a forehead full
As the milk-white space 'twixt horn and horn
Of some sacrificial bull—170
Only calm as a babe new-born:
For he was got to a sleepy mood,
So safe from all decrepitude,
Age with its bane, so sure gone by,
(The gods so loved him while he dreamed)175
That, having lived thus long, there seemed
No need the king should ever die.
Luigi. No need that sort of king should ever die!
Among the rocks his city was:
Before his palace, in the sun,180
He sat to see his people pass,
And judge them every one
From its threshold of smooth stone.
They haled him many a valley-thief
Caught in the sheep-pens, robber-chief185
Swarthy and shameless, beggar-cheat,
Spy-prowler, or rough pirate found
On the sea-sand left aground;
And sometimes clung about his feet,
With bleeding lid and burning cheek,190
A woman, bitterest wrong to speak
Of one with sullen thickset brows:
And sometimes from the prison-house
The angry priests a pale wretch brought,
Who through some chink had pushed and pressed195
On knees and elbows, belly and breast,
Worm-like into the temple—caught
He was by the very god,
Whoever in the darkness strode
Backward and forward, keeping watch200
O'er his brazen bowls, such rogues to catch!
These, all and everyone,
The king judged, sitting in the sun.