Page:Pacchiarotto and how he worked in distemper; with other poems - Browning (1876).djvu/204

The spokesman, eighty years of age,
 Grey as a badger, with a goat's
—Not only beard but bleat, 'gins wage
 War with our Mary. Thus he dotes:—

13.
"' Friends, grant a grace! How Hebrews toil
 Through life in Florence—why relate
To those who lay the burden, spoil
 Our paths of peace? We bear our fate.
But when with life the long toil ends,
 Why must you—the expression craves
Pardon, but truth compels me, friends!—
 Why must you plague us in our graves?