CRESCENZIO, the Pope's Legate at the High Council, Trent, -- Year Fifteen hundred twenty-two, March Twenty-five -- intent On writing letters to the Pope till late into the night, Rose, weary, to refresh himself, and saw a monstrous sight: (I give mine Author's very words: he penned, I reindite.) A black Dog of vast bigness, eyes flaming, ears that hung Down to the very ground almost, into the chamber sprung And made directly for him, and laid himself right under The table where Crescenzio wrote -- who called in fear and wonder His servants in the ante-room, commanded every one To look for and find out the beast: but, looking, they found none. The Cardinal fell melancholy, then sick, soon after died: And at Verona, as he lay on his death-bed, he cried Aloud to drive away the Dog that leapt on his bedside. Heaven keep us Protestants from harm: the rest ... no ill betide! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A WINTER BLUEJAY by SARA TEASDALE ON A CARRIER WHO DIED OF DRUNKENNESS by GEORGE GORDON BYRON MOTLEY: MUSIC by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE THE TRAGEDY OF VALENTINIAN: SPRING by JOHN FLETCHER FOR THAT HE LOOKED NOT UPON HER by GEORGE GASCOIGNE SUMMER MATURES by HELENE JOHNSON DREAMS OLD AND NASCENT: NASCENT by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE |