The Court Of Reason

    A thousand doubts and pleadings in a day
        Are filed in Empress Reason's court supreme
        By angry Love--his eyes with anger gleam.
        "Which of us twain hath been more faithful, say.
    'Tis all through me that Cino can display
        The sail of fame on life's unhappy stream."
        "Thee," quoth I, "root of all my woe I deem,
        I found what gall beneath thy sweetness lay."
    Then he: "Ah, traitorous and truant slave!
        Are these the thanks thou renderest, ingrate,
        For giving thee a maid without a peer?"
    "Thy left," cried I, "slew what thy right hand gave."
        "Not so," said he. The judge, "Your wrath abate.
        I must have time to give true judgment here."

                                                                Cino da Pistoia.

    [Imitated by Petrarch in the conclusion of the Canzone, Quell' antico mio dolce empio signore.]

James Williams

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James Williams

The Poet And The Advocate

James Williams, Simple Poetry

Lawn Tennis in the Temple Gardens

James Williams, Simple Poetry

Her Letter in Chambers

James Williams, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

To Laura In Death. Canzone VII.

Quell' antiquo mio dolce empio signore.

LOVE, SUMMONED BY THE POET TO THE TRIBUNAL OF REASON, PASSES A SPLENDID EULOGIUM ON LAURA.


    Long had I suffer'd, till--to combat more
In strength, in hope too sunk--at last before
Impartial Reason's seat,
Whence she presides our nobler nature o'er,
I summon'd my old tyrant, stern and sweet;
There, groaning 'neath a weary weight of grief,
With fear and horror stung,
Like one who dreads to die and prays relief,
My plea I open'd thus: "When life was young,
I, weakly, placed my peace within his power,
And nothing from that hour
Save wrong I've met; so many and so great
The torments I have borne,
That my once infinite patience is outworn,
And my life worthless grown is held in very hate!

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A Vision of Legal Shadows

    A case at chambers left for my opinion
        Had taxed my brain until the noon of night,
    I read old law, and loathed the long dominion
                                    Of fiction over right.

    I had consulted Coke and Cruise and Chitty,
        The works where ancient learning reigns supreme,
    Until exhausted nature, moved with pity,
                                    Sent me a bookman's dream.

    Six figures, all gigantic as Gargantua,
        Floated before my eyes, and all the six
    Were shades like those that once the bard of Mantua
                                    Saw by the shore of Styx.

    The first was one with countenance imperious,
        His toga dim with centuries of dust;
    "My name," quoth he, "is Aulus and A...

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Sonnet LXXI.

Piangete, donne, e con voi pianga Amore.

ON THE DEATH OF CINO DA PISTOIA.


    Weep, beauteous damsels, and let Cupid weep,
Of every region weep, ye lover train;
He, who so skilfully attuned his strain
To your fond cause, is sunk in death's cold sleep!
Such limits let not my affliction keep,
As may the solace of soft tears restrain;
And, to relieve my bosom of its pain,
Be all my sighs tumultuous, utter'd deep!
Let song itself, and votaries of verse,
Breathe mournful accents o'er our Cino's bier,
Who late is gone to number with the blest!
Oh! weep, Pistoia, weep your sons perverse;
Its choicest habitant has fled our sphere,
And heaven may glory in its welcome guest!

NOTT.


    Ye damsels, pour your tears! weep with...

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Law and Poetry

    In days of old did law and rime
        A common pathway follow,
    For Themis in the mythic time
        Was sister of Apollo.

    The Hindu statutes tripped in feet
        As daintily as Dryads,
    And law in Wales to be complete
        Was versified in triads.

    The wise Alfonso of Castile
        Composed his code in metre
    Thereby to make its flavour feel
        A little bit the sweeter.

    But law and rime were found to be
        A trifle inconsistent,
    And now in statutes poetry
        Is wholly non-existent.

    Still here and there some advocate
        Before his fellows know it
    Has had bestowed on him by fate
        The laurel of the poet.

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At The Corregidor's.

To Don Odora says Donna De Vine:
"I yield to thy long endeavor!
At my balcony be on the stroke of nine,
And, Signor, am thine forever!"

This beauty but once had the Don descried
As she quit the confessional; followed;
"What a foot for silk! a face for a bride
Hem!" the rest Odora swallowed.

And with vows as soft as his oaths were sweet
Her heart he barricaded;
And pressed this point with a present meet,
And that point serenaded.

What else could the enemy do but yield
To a handsome importuning!
A gallant blade with a lute for shield
All night at her lattice mooning!

"Que es estrella! O lily of girls!
Here's that for thy fierce duenna:
A purse of pistoles and a rosary o' pearls
And gold as yellow as henna.

Madison Julius Cawein

Canzone VII.

Lasso me, ch i' non so in qual parte pieghi.

HE WOULD CONSOLE HIMSELF WITH SONG, BUT IS CONSTRAINED TO WEEP.


    Me wretched! for I know not whither tend
The hopes which have so long my heart betray'd:
If none there be who will compassion lend,
Wherefore to Heaven these often prayers for aid?
But if, belike, not yet denied to me
That, ere my own life end,
These sad notes mute shall be,
Let not my Lord conceive the wish too free,
Yet once, amid sweet flowers, to touch the string,
"Reason and right it is that love I sing."

Reason indeed there were at last that I
Should sing, since I have sigh'd so long and late,
But that for me 'tis vain such art to try,
Brief pleasures balancing with sorrows great;
Could I, by some sweet verse, bu...

Francesco Petrarca