Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Petrarch Sonnet II

When Love doth those sweet eyes to earth incline,
     And weaves those wandering notes into a sigh
     With his own touch, and leads a minstrelsy
Clear-voiced and pure, angelic and divine, —

He makes sweet havoc in this heart of mine,
     And to my thoughts brings transformation high,
     So that I say, “My time has come to die,
If fate so blest a death for me design.”

But to my soul, thus steeped in joy, the sound
Brings such a wish to keep that present heaven,
It holds my spirit back to earth as well.

And thus I live: and thus is loosed and wound
The thread of life which unto me was given
By this sole Siren who with us doth dwell.

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