The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - Apology By Paradox.

Non é brutto il Demon.


The Devil's not so ugly as they paint;
        He's well with all, compact of courtesy:
        Real heroism is real piety:
        Before small truth great falsehoods shrink and faint
If pots stain worse than pipkins, it were quaint
        To charge the pipkins with impurity:
        Freedom I crave: who craves not to be free?
        Yet life that must be feigned for, leaves a taint.
Ill conduct brings repentance?--If you prate
        This wise to me, why prate not thus to all
        Philosophers and prophets, and to Christ?
Not too much learning, as some arrogate,
        But the small brains of dullards have sufficed
        To make us wretched and the world enthrall.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born on March 6, 1475, he is widely considered one of the greatest artists of all time. His poetry, although lesser-known compared to his other artistic achievements, displays his deep contemplation of art, love, and spirituality. Michelangelo passed away on February 18, 1564.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Love's Loadstone. First Reading.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

Love In Youth And Age. First Reading.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

To Monsignor Lodovico Beccadelli. Urbino.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

Heaven-Born Beauty. First Reading.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

English

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The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - The Soul's Apology.

Ben sei mila anni.


Six thousand years or more on earth I've been:
        Witness those histories of nations dead,
        Which for our age I have illustrated
        In philosophic volumes, scene by scene.
And thou, mere mite, seeing my sun serene
        Eclipsed, wilt argue that I had no head
        To live by.--Why not try the sun instead,
        If nought in fate unfathomed thou hast seen?
If wise men, whom the world rebukes, combined
        With tyrant wolves, brute beasts we should become.
        The sage, once stoned for sin, you canonise.
When rennet melts, much milk makes haste to bind.
        The more you blow the flames, the more they rise,
        Bloom into stars, and find in heaven their home.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - Hypocrites.

Nessun ti venne a dir.


Who comes and saith: 'A Tyrant, lo, am I!'
        And, 'I am Antichrist!' what man will swear?
        The crafty rogue, hiding his poisonous ware,
        Sells you what slays your soul, for sanctity.
Cheats, brigands, prostitutes, and all that fry,
        Not having fashioned so devout a snare,
        Appear worse sinners than perhaps they are;
        For where the craft's small, small's the villainy;
You're on your guard. The meek Samaritan
        Makes way before those guileful Pharisees,
        Though God assigned to him the higher place.
        Not words nor wonders prove a virtuous man,
But deeds and acts. How many deities
        Hath this false standard given the human race!

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - To The Poets.

In superbia il valor.


Valour to pride hath turned; grave holiness
        To vile hypocrisy; all gentle ways
        To empty forms; sound sense to idle lays;
        Pure love to heat; beauty to paint and dress:--
Thanks to you, Poets! you who sing the praise
        Of fabled knights, foul fires, lies, nullities;
        Not virtue, nor the wrapped sublimities
        Of God, as bards were wont in those old days.
How far more wondrous than your phantasies
        Are Nature's works, how far more sweet to sing!
        Thus taught, the soul falsehood and truth descries.
That tale alone is worth the pondering,
        Which hath not smothered history in lies,
        And arms the soul against each sinful thing.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - Sophists.

Nessun ti verrà a dire.


'Behold, I am a Sophist!' no man saith.
        But the true sons of perfidy refined
        Forge theologic lies the soul to blind,
        Calling themselves evangels of the faith.
Aretine with his scoundrels blew his breath,
        And in the cynic orgies boldly joined;
        His ribald jests had flowers and thorns combined--
        A frank fair list including life and death,
For fun, not fraud. It shames him to be found
        Less vile than those who cannot bear to see
        Their sink of filth laid open to the ground:
Wherefore they shut our mouths, our books impound,
        Garble with lies each sentence that may be
        Cited to prove their foul hypocrisy.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - Against Hypocrites.

Gli affetti di Pluton.


Deep in their hearts they hide the lusts of Hell:
        Christ's name is written on their brow, that those
        Who only view the husk, may not suppose
        What guile and malice harbour in the shell.
O God! O Wisdom! Holy Fervour! Well
        Of strength invincible to strike Thy foes!
        Give me the force--my spirit burns and glows--
        To strip those idols and to break their spell!
The zeal I bear unto Thy name benign,
        The love I feel for truth sincere and pure,
        When such men triumph, make me rend my hair.
How long shall folk this infamy endure--
        That he should be held sacred, he divine,
        Who strips e'en corpses in the graveyard bare?

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - The Proem.

Io che nacqui dal Senno.


Born of God's Wisdom and Philosophy,
        Keen lover of true beauty and true good,
        I call the vain self-traitorous multitude
        Back to my mother's milk; for it is she,
Faithful to God her spouse, who nourished me,
        Making me quick and active to intrude
        Within the inmost veil, where I have viewed
        And handled all things in eternity.
If the whole world's our home where we may run,
        Up, friends, forsake those secondary schools
        Which give grains, units, inches for the whole!
If facts surpass mere words, melt pride of soul,
        And pain, and ignorance that hardens fools,
        Here in the fire I've stolen from the Sun!

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni