23JULIAN MALASPADA TO THE FALSE HIPPOLYTUS. 1450 г.Thou living Riddle, art thou he or not? Thou art his image, such as it might be Within the looking-glass; and if not he, Who else, who else, thou breathing walking plot?...

49CESARE GALLETTI TO ARIOSTO.(1540.)Friend, I am weary of this world of ours, Where nibbling cares outnumber nibbling mice, Where all is fleeting as a film of ice, Where hidden cankers nip the budding flowers,Where,...

49CESARE GALLETTI TO ARIOSTO.(1540.)Friend, I am weary of this world of ours, Where nibbling cares outnumber nibbling mice, Where all is fleeting as a film of ice, Where hidden cankers nip the budding flowers,Where,...

46SIR THOMAS MORE TO HIS WIFE. 1535 г.Doubtless know how pleasant is the blaze, And love to sit and warm me by the hearth When every face which most I love on earth Is seen or hidden, as the shadow plays;And well I know...

47FILIPPO STROZZI TO DUKE COSMO. 1538Hast thou not murdered Freedom in her sleep? So thou may'st murder me. But, in Death's sight, I curse thee, Cosmo, with a shrivelling blight; Grain shalt thou sow, and vipers shalt thou reap...

63HANS BROMIUS TO HIMSELF. 1602г.Have I not sat for years upon this bench, And doomed, unmoved, to gibbet or to stake Whole scores of years, and never let them shake My wall of law, or pass my heart's deep trench?What i...

64. SIR WALTER RALEIGH TO A CAGED LINNET. 1608 г.Thou tiny solace of these prison days, Too long already have I kept thee here; With every week thou hast become more dear— So dear that I will free thee: fly thy way.Man, the alt...

65. DOMINGO LOPEZ TO HIS SAVIOUR. 1610 г.The cowardice of man who dares not do!— For sixteen centuries since Jesus died On Golgotha, we paint Him from dolls tied On crosses, or from corpses stark and blue.Has any painter ever d...

66. ARABELLA STUART TO THE UNSEEN SPRING. 1612 г.It must be Spring; a long bright slanting ray Peeps daily in and warms my prison now; While, through the bars, on which I rest my brow, A twittering of swallows finds it way.The...

Thomas Hood (1799-1845) SilenceThere is a silence where hath been no sound,There is a silence where no sound may be,In the cold grave--under the deep deep sea,Or in the wide desert where no life is found,Which hath been...