Riven as woodmen fir-trees rive,
instead of giving:—
Riven as blacksmiths boulters rive,
because I thought that the second and faithful version would be unintelligible as well as unpoetical for English readers.
[CONTENTS]
[EIGHT SONNETS OF PETRARCH]
ON THE PAPAL COURT AT AVIGNON
Fountain of woe! Harbour of endless ire!
Thou school of errors, haunt of heresies!
Once Rome, now Babylon, the world's disease,
That maddenest men with fears and fell desire!
O forge of fraud! O prison dark and dire,
Where dies the good, where evil breeds increase!
Thou living Hell! Wonders will never cease
If Christ rise not to purge thy sins with fire.
Founded in chaste and humble poverty,
Against thy founders thou dost raise thy horn,
Thou shameless harlot! And whence flows this pride?
Even from foul and loathed adultery,
The wage of lewdness. Constantine, return!
Not so: the felon world its fate must bide.