| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | Translations | From the Italian.
Seven Sonnets and a Canzone.
II. Fire |
| | | NOT without fire can any workman mould | |
| The iron to his preconceived design, | |
| Nor can the artist without fire refine | |
| And purify from all its dross the gold; | |
| Nor can revive the phœnix, we are told, | 5 |
| Except by fire. Hence, if such death be mine, | |
| I hope to rise again with the divine, | |
| Whom death augments, and time cannot make old. | |
| O sweet, sweet death! O fortunate fire that burns | |
| Within me still to renovate my days, | 10 |
| Though I am almost numbered with the dead! | |
| If by its nature unto heaven returns | |
| This element, me, kindled in its blaze, | |
| Will it bear upward when my life is fled. | | | | |
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