From the Italian - Seven Sonnets and a Canzone - Sonnet II. Fire

Sonnet II - Fire

Not without fire can any workman mould
The iron to his preconceived design,
Nor can the artist without fire refine
And purify from all its dross the gold;
Nor can revive the phoenix, we are told,
Except by fire. Hence if such death be mine
I hope to rise again with the divine,
Whom death augments, and time cannot make old.
O sweet, sweet death! O fortunate fire that burns
Within me still to renovate my days,
Though I am almost numbered with the dead!
If by its nature unto heaven returns
This element, me, kindled in its blaze,
Will it bear upward when my life is fled.

Content: From the Italian: Seven Sonnets and a Canzone: Sonnet II. Fire [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Translations]

Read next: From the Italian#Seven Sonnets and a Canzone#Sonnet III. Youth and Age

Read previous: From the Italian#Seven Sonnets and a Canzone#Sonnet I. The Artist

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