XXXI.
The Tribune of the Florence Gallery.
Where Venus shuns and more attracts the eye,1
A goddess chaste, though naked as the sky ;2
Where Raphael’s maiden worships in her child3
A new-born Heaven by nought less pure defiled :4
Where prophets old, in self-oblivion strong,5
From high walls breathe a woe on human wrong :6
Where gods and godlike men are imaged round,7
A nobler band than moves on earthly ground,8
Bewilder’d mortals often mutely stare9
To find how vast a life is that they share.10