Author: David Schwarm
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The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer
The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer My rating: 2 of 5 stars Ugh. This is a tough one… the book covers a topic poorly documented in English–there are not nearly enough books on Italian Fascism. There are not enough papal…
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XXXI
Midst others of less note, came one frail Form, A phantom among men; companionless As the last cloud of an expiring storm Whose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess, Had gaz’d on Nature’s naked loveliness, Actaeon-like, and now he fled astray With feeble steps o’er the world’s wilderness, And his own thoughts,…
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XXX
Thus ceas’d she: and the mountain shepherds came, Their garlands sere, their magic mantles rent; The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame Over his living head like Heaven is bent, An early but enduring monument, Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song In sorrow; from her wilds Ierne sent The sweetest lyrist of her…
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XXIX
“The sun comes forth, and many reptiles spawn; He sets, and each ephemeral insect then Is gather’d into death without a dawn, And the immortal stars awake again; So is it in the world of living men: A godlike mind soars forth, in its delight Making earth bare and veiling heaven, and when It…
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XXVIII
“The herded wolves, bold only to pursue; The obscene ravens, clamorous o’er the dead; The vultures to the conqueror’s banner true Who feed where Desolation first has fed, And whose wings rain contagion; how they fled, When, like Apollo, from his golden bow The Pythian of the age one arrow sped And smil’d! The…
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XXVII
“O gentle child, beautiful as thou wert, Why didst thou leave the trodden paths of men Too soon, and with weak hands though mighty heart Dare the unpastur’d dragon in his den? Defenceless as thou wert, oh, where was then Wisdom the mirror’d shield, or scorn the spear? Or hadst thou waited the full…
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XXVI
“Stay yet awhile! speak to me once again; Kiss me, so long but as a kiss may live; And in my heartless breast and burning brain That word, that kiss, shall all thoughts else survive, With food of saddest memory kept alive, Now thou art dead, as if it were a part Of thee,…
