He Is out of Heart with His Time
Guerzo di Montecanti (13th century)
If any man would know the very cause
Which makes me to forget my speech in rhyme,
All the sweet songs I sang in other time,--
I'll tell it in a sonnet's simple clause.
I hourly have beheld how good withdraws
To nothing, and how evil mounts the while:
Until my heart is gnawed as with a file,
Nor aught of this world's worth is what it was.
At last there is no other remedy
But to behold the universal end;
And so upon this hope my thoughts are urged:
To whom, since truth is sunk and dead at sea,
There has no other part or prayer remain'd
Except of seeing the world's self submerged.
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