Quia Nominor Leo - Sonnets

I.     What part is left thee, lion? Ravenous beast,     Which hadst the world for pasture, and for scope     And compass of thine homicidal hope     The kingdom of the spirit of man, the feast     Of souls subdued from west to sunless east,     From blackening north to bloodred south aslope,     All servile; earth for footcloth of the pope,     And heaven for chancel-ceiling of the priest;     Thou that hadst earth by right of rack and rod,     Thou that hadst Rome because thy name was God,     And by thy creeds gift heaven wherein to dwell;     Heaven laughs with all his light and might above     That earth has cast thee out of faith and love;     Thy part is but the hollow dream of hell. II.     The light of life has faded from thy cause,     High priest of heaven and hell and purgatory:     Thy lips are loud with strains of oldworld story,     But the red prey was rent out of thy paws     Long since and they that dying brake down thy laws     Have with the fires of death-enkindled glory     Put out the flame that faltered on thy hoary     High altars, waning with the worlds applause.     This Italy was Dantes Bruno died     Here Campanella, too sublime for pride,     Endured thy Gods worst here, and hence went home.     And what art thou, that times full tide should shrink     For thy sake downward? What art thou, to think     Thy God shall give thee back for birthright Rome?