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e right to vindicate, the weak redress; And now, when gratitude, When piety appeal, shall she do less To avenge the injury and end the scorn By blessed Mary's glorious offspring borne? What fear we, while the heathen for success Confide in human powers, If, on the adverse side, be Christ, and his side ours? Turn, too, when Xerxes our free shores to tread Rush'd in hot haste, and dream'd the perilous main With scourge and fetter to chastise and chain, --What see'st? Wild wailing o'er their husbands dead, Persia's pale matrons wrapt in weeds of woe, And red with gore the gulf of Salamis! To prove our triumph certain, to foreshow The utter ruin of our Eastern foe, No single instance this; Miltiades and Marathon recall, See, with his patriot few, Leonidas Closing, Thermopylae, thy bloody pass! Like them to dare and do, to God let all With heart and knee bow down, Who for our arms and age has kept this great renown. Thou shalt see Italy, that honour'd land, Which from my eyes, O Song! nor seas, streams, heights, So long have barr'd and bann'd, But love alone, who with his haughty lights The more allures me as he worse excites, Till nature fails against his constant wiles. Go then, and join thy comrades; not alone Beneath fair female zone Dwells Love, who, at his will, moves us to tears or smiles. MACGREGOR. CANZONE III. _Verdi panni, sanguigni, oscuri o persi._ WHETHER OR NOT HE SHOULD CEASE TO LOVE LAURA. Green robes and red, purple, or brown, or gray No lady ever wore, Nor hair of gold in sunny tresses twined, So beautiful as she, who spoils my mind Of judgment, and from freedom's lofty path So draws me with her that I may not bear Any less heavy yoke. And if indeed at times--for wisdom fails Where martyrdom breeds doubt-- The soul should ever arm it to complain Suddenly from each reinless rude desire Her smile recalls, and razes from my heart Every rash enterprise, while all disdain Is soften'd in her sight. For all that I have ever borne for love, And still am doom'd to bear, Till she who wounded it shall heal my heart, Rejecting homage e'en while she invites, Be vengeance done! but let not pride nor ire 'Gainst my humility the lovely pass By which I enter'd bar.
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