From the Italian - Seven Sonnets and a Canzone - Sonnet V. To Vittoria Colonna

Sonnet V - To Vittoria Colonna

Lady, how can it chance--yet this we see
In long experience--that will longer last
A living image carved from quarries vast
Than its own maker, who dies presently?
Cause yieldeth to effect if this so be,
And even Nature is by Art at surpassed;
This know I, who to Art have given the past,
But see that Time is breaking faith with me.
Perhaps on both of us long life can I
Either in color or in stone bestow,
By now portraying each in look and mien;
So that a thousand years after we die,
How fair thou wast, and I how full of woe,
And wherefore I so loved thee, may be seen.

Content: From the Italian: Sonnet V. To Vittoria Colonna [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Translations]

Read next: From the Italian#Seven Sonnets and a Canzone#Sonnet VI. To Vittoria Colonna

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