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The Spanish gypsy, a poem by George Eliot
The Spanish gypsy a poem by George Eliot Author:Mary Ann Evans Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A handsome room in the Castle. On a table a rich jewel-casket. Silva had doffed his mail and with it all The heavier harness of his warlike cares. He ha... more »d not seen Fedalma ; miser-like He hoarded through the hour a costlier joy By longing oft-repressed. Now it was earned ; And with observance wonted he would send To ask admission. Spanish gentlemen Who wooed fair dames of noble ancestry Did homage with rich tunics and slashed sleeves And outward-surging linen's costly snow ; With broidered scarf transverse, and rosary Handsomely wrought to fit high-blooded prayer ; So hinting in how deep respect they held That self they threw before their lady's feet. And Silva—that Fedalma's rate should stand No jot below the highest, that her love Might seem to all the royal gift it was— Turned every trifle in his mien and garb To scrupulous language, uttering to the world That since she loved him he went carefully, Bearing a thing so precious in his hand. A man of high-wrought strain, fastidious In his acceptance, dreading all delight That speedy dien and turns to carrion: His senses much exacting, deep instilled With keen imagination's difficult needs ;— Like strong-limbed monsters studded o'er with eyes, Their hunger checked by overwhelming vision, Or that fierce lion in symbolic dream Snatched from the ground by wings and new-endowed With a man's thought-propelled relenting heart. Silva was both the lion and the man ; First hesitating shrank, then fiercely sprang, Or having sprung, turned pallid at his deed And loosed the prize, paying his blood for nought. A nature half-transformed, with qualities That oft bewrayed each other, elements Not blent but struggling, breeding strange e...« less