I know and love the good, yet, ah! the worst pursue.
Sonnet ccxxv, Canzone xxi, “To Laura in Life.”
Francesco Petrarch, the greatest of Italian lyric poets, was born at Arezzo, July 20, 1304, and died at Arquà, July 18, 1374. He wrote: “Africa,” “Memoranda,” “Of Contempt of the World,” “Of the Solitary Life,” “Of the Remedies for Either Fortune,” “Rime,” “Of Illustrious Men,” “Metrical Epistles,” etc.
To sea! to sea! the calm is o’er,
The wanton water leaps in sport,
And rattles down the pebbly shore,
The dolphin wheels, the sea-cows snort,
And unseen mermaid’s pearly song
Comes bubbling up, the weeds among.
Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar:
To sea! to sea! the calm is o’er.
“To Sea!”—Thomas Lovell Beddoes.
Thomas Lovell Beddoes, a noted English poet and dramatist, was born at Clifton, July 20, 1803, and died at Basle, January 26, 1849. He wrote: “The Improvisatore,” and “The Bride’s Tragedy,” “Poetical Works” (London, 1890), and “Letters” (London, 1894), were edited by Edmond Gosse.
Soft peace she brings; wherever she arrives
She builds our quiet as she forms our lives;
Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even,
And opens in each heart a little heaven.
“Charity,”—Matthew Prior.
Matthew Prior, an eminent English poet, was born at Wimborne in Dorsetshire, July 21, 1664, and died at Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, September 18, 1721. Among his noted works are: “Solomon,” “Alma; or, the Progress of the Mind,” and “Poems on Several Occasions.”
How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule?