251. ‘O misera et horribil visïone!’

O wretched and terrible imagining!

Is it true that the kindly light is quenched,

before its time, that made my life

content in painful and hopeful times?

How is it then such dark news is not echoed,

by other messengers, and felt by her alone?

Now God, and Nature, do not consent,

and let my sad intelligence be false.

Let me still hope for my sweet sight

to be adorned with her lovely face,

that supports me, and honours our age.

If she has left her lovely dwelling-house

to leap to her eternal place of rest,

I pray my final day will not be long.