O Christ of the seven wounds, who look'dst through the dark To the face of thy mother! Consider, I pray, How we common mothers stand desolate, mark,-- Whose sons, not being Christs, die with eyes turned away, And no last word to say! Both boys dead? but that's out of nature. We all Have been patriots, yet each house must always keep one. 'Twere imbecile, hewing out roads to a wall; And when Italy's made, for what end is it done, If we have not a son? Ah, ah, ah! when Gaeta's taken, what then? When the fair wicked queen sits no more at her sport Of the fire-balls of death crashing souls out of men; When the guns of Cavalli with final retort Have cut the game short; When Venice and Rome keep their new jubilee; When your flag takes all heaven for its white, green, and red: When _you_ have your country from mountain to sea, When King Victor has Italy's crown on his head, (And I have my dead)-- What then? Do not mock me. Ah, ring your bells low And burn your lights faintly! _My_ country is _there_. Above the star pricked by the last peak of snow: My Italy's THERE, with my brave civic pair, To disfranchise despair! Forgive me. Some women bear children in strength, And bite back the cry of their pain in self-scorn; But the birth-pangs of nations will wring us at length Into wail such as this, and we sit on forlorn When the man-child is born. Dead! One of them shot by the sea in the east, And one of them shot in the west by the sea. Both! both my boys! If in keeping the feast You want a great song for your Italy free, Let none look at _me_! A COURT LADY Her hair was tawny with gold; her eyes with purple were dark; Her cheeks' pale opal burnt with a red and restless spark. Never was lady of Milan nobler in name and in race; Never was lady of Italy fairer to see in the face. Never was lady on earth more true as woman and wife, Larger in judgment and instinct, prouder in manners and life. She stood in the early morning, and said to her maidens, "Bring That silken robe made ready to wear at the court of the King. "Bring me the clasps of diamond, lucid, clear of the mote; Clasp me the large at the waist, and clasp me the small at the throat. "Diamonds to fasten the hair, and diamonds to fasten the sleeves, Laces to drop from their rays, like a powder of snow from the eaves." Gorgeous she entered the sunlight, which gathered her up in a flame, While, straight in her open carriage, she to the hospital came. In she went at the door, and gazing from end to end,-- "Many and low are the pallets; but each is the place of a friend."