C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

To the Princess Leonora Written Soon After the Poet’s Arrival at Ferrara

Amor l’ alma m’ allaccia

Translation of Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen

LOVE binds my soul in chains of bliss

Firm, rigorous, strict, and strong;

I am not sorrowful for this,

But why I quarrel with him is,

He quite ties up my tongue.

When I my lady should salute,

I can on no pretense;

But timid and confused stand mute,

Or, wandering in my reason, suit

My speech but ill with sense.

Loose, gentle love, my tongue, and if

Thou’lt not give up one part

Of thy great power, respect my grief,

Take off this chain in kind relief,

And add it to my heart!