BIRTHDAY ODE.
105
The direst of divine things made,
Bows down her amorous aureole half suffused with shade. 120
As red the fire-scathed royal northland bloom,str. 4
That left our story a name
Dyed through with blood and flame
Ere her life shrivelled from a fierier doom
Than theirs her priests bade pass from earth in fire
To slake the thirst of God their Lord's desire:
As keen the blast of love-enkindled fate
That burst the Paduan tyrant's guarded gate:
As sad the softer moan
Made one with music's own 130
For one whose feet made music as they fell
On ways by loveless love made hot from hell:
But higher than these and all the song thereof
