Classic Poem

TO PANDOLFO MALATESTA, LORD OF RIMINI

The seed of virtue shed its blossom deep
Within thy heart when Love found lodging there;
And like the flower, the fruit is also fair:
The hopes I cherished long, I richly reap.
Wherefore my spirit into song must leap
To deck with praise the mighty name you bear:
For proudest marble never can declare
More than the flesh that withers in a sleep.
Think you Marcellus or the purple name
Of Caesar, Paulus, Scipio spring to flame
By anvil's heat or hammer's nervous thrust?
No, my Pandolfo, stone dissolves in dust:
Only the poet's pure immortal plan
Outwits the swift mortality of man.