The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - A Sonnet On Caucasus.

Temo che per morir.


I fear that by my death the human race
        Would gain no vantage. Thus I do not die.
        So wide is this vast cage of misery
        That flight and change lead to no happier place.
Shifting our pains, we risk a sorrier case:
        All worlds, like ours, are sunk in agony:
        Go where we will, we feel; and this my cry
        I may forget like many an old disgrace.
Who knows what doom is mine? The Omnipotent
        Keeps silence; nay, I know not whether strife
        Or peace was with me in some earlier life.
Philip in a worse prison me hath pent
        These three days past--but not without God's will.
        Stay we as God decrees: God doth no ill.