138
PETRARCH.
SONNET CVIII.
Quanta piu desiose T all spando.
FAR FROM HIS FRIENDS, HE FLIES TO THEM IN THOUGHT.
THE more my own fond wishes would impel My steps to you. sweet company of friends ! Fortune with their free course the more contends, And elsewhere bids me roam, by snare and spell The heart, sent forth by me though it rebel. Is still with you where that fair vale extends, In whose green windings most our sea ascends* From which but yesterday I wept farewell. It took the right-hand way, the left I tried, I dragg'd by force in slavery to remain, It left at liberty with Love its guide ; But patience is great comfort amid pain : Long habits mutually form'd declare That our communion must be brief and rare.
MACGREGOR
SONNET CIX.
Amor che ndpensier mio vive e regna.
THE COURAGE AND TIMIDITY OF LOVE.
THE long Love that in my thought I harbour, And in my heart doth keep his residence, Into my face presseth with bold pretence, And there campeth displaying his banner. She that me learns to love and to suffer, And wills that my trust, and lust's negligence Be rein'd by reason, shame, and reverence, With his hardiness takes displeasure. Wherewith Love to the heart's forest he fleeth, Leaving his enterprise with pain and cry, And there him hideth, and not appeareth. Wliat may I do, when my master feareth, But in the field with him to live and die ? For good is the life, ending faithfully. WYATT
LOVE, that liveth and reigneth in my thought, That built its seat within my captive breast ;
