Time & Brevity

Michael Angelo: Canzone

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807–1882

From Translations

Time & Brevity

Ah me! ah me! when thinking of the years,
The vanished years, alas, I do not find
Among them all one day that was my own!
Fallacious hope; desires of the unknown,
Lamenting, loving, burning, and in tears
(For human passions all have stirred my mind),
Have held me, now I feel and know, confined
Both from the true and good still far away.
I perish day by day;
The sunshine fails, the shadows grow more dreary,
And I am near to fail, infirm and weary.

✦ ✦ ✦

Translated by Longfellow from Michael Angelo, Italian

MLA

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “Michael Angelo: Canzone.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/longfellow/420/.

Chicago

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “Michael Angelo: Canzone.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/longfellow/420/.

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