TO ANTONIO OF FERRARA WHO, IN AN ELEGY, HAD PREMATURELY MOURNED PETRARCH'S DEATH

Those pious verses, which revealed so well
Thy genius and thy generous spirit, so
Inflamed my mind to a responsive glow
That instantly I set about to tell
How, though Death has not struck as yet — that knell
None shall escape, that final definite blow —
Nevertheless I too, and with no woe,
Had almost found the gateway to his hell:
But back I came once more because I read
Writ large across the lintel that the last
Of my appointed life was not all past,
Though still the ultimate moment's hollow tread
I heard not... Therefore be not overcast,
But love that living thou didst praise as dead.