Part 6 (2/2)
SECOND READING.
_A PRAYER TO NATURE._
AMOR REDIVIVUS.
_Sol perche tue bellezze._
If only that thy beauties here may be Deathless through Time that rends the wreaths he twined, I trust that Nature will collect and bind All those delights the slow years steal from thee, And keep them for a birth more happily Born under better auspices, refined Into a heavenly form of n.o.bler mind, And dowered with all thine angel purity.
Ah me! and may heaven also keep my sighs, My scattered tears preserve and reunite, And give to him who loves that fair again!
More happy he perchance shall move those eyes To mercy by the griefs my manhood blight, Nor lose the kindness that from me is ta'en!
x.x.xIV.
_LOVE'S FURNACE._
_S amico al freddo sa.s.so._
So friendly is the fire to flinty stone, That, struck therefrom and kindled to a blaze, It burns the stone, and from the ash doth raise What lives thenceforward binding stones in one: Kiln-hardened this resists both frost and sun, Acquiring higher worth for endless days-- As the purged soul from h.e.l.l returns with praise, Amid the heavenly host to take her throne.
E'en so the fire struck from my soul, that lay Close-hidden in my heart, may temper me, Till burned and slaked to better life I rise.
If, made mere smoke and dust, I live to-day, Fire-hardened I shall live eternally; Such gold, not iron, my spirit strikes and tries.
x.x.xV.
_LOVE'S PARADOXES._
_Sento d' un foco._
Far off with fire I feel a cold face lit, That makes me burn, the while itself doth freeze: Two fragile arms enchain me, which with ease, Unmoved themselves, can move weights infinite.
A soul none knows but I, most exquisite, That, deathless, deals me death, my spirit sees: I meet with one who, free, my heart doth seize: And who alone can cheer, hath tortured it.
How can it be that from one face like thine My own should feel effects so contrary, Since ill comes not from things devoid of ill?
That loveliness perchance doth make me pine, Even as the sun, whose fiery beams we see, Inflames the world, while he is temperate still.
x.x.xVI.
_LOVE MISINTERPRETED._
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