University of Virginia Library


256

Guido Guinicelli (Italian)

When steel and lodestone touch they cleave
As if in rapturous trance they hung,
Severed—each others clasp they leave
As though to life and love they clung.
Thus too the heart!—but ah beware!
When over the subtle flame has past
Both must its power forever share
And each, to each, be first—and last—
Absent or present, heart and steel
Become as if by lightning riven:
Thenceforth they only know and feel
One spell on Earth—one Star in Heaven!