Classic Poem

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.