Poscia Che Mia Fortuna in Forza Altrui

When once my will was captive by my fate, / And I had lost the liberty, which late / Made my life happy; I, who used before / To flee from Love (as fearful deer abhor / The following huntsman), suddenly became / (Like all my fellow-servants) calm and tame; / And view'd the travails, wrestlings, and the smart, / The crooked by-paths, and the cozening art / That guides the amorous flock: then whilst mine eye / I cast in every corner, to espy / Some ancient or modern who had proved / Famous, I saw him, who had only loved / Eurydice, and found out hell, to call / Her dear ghost back; he named her in his fall / For whom he died. Aleaeus there was known, / Skilful in love and verse: Anacreon, / Whose muse sung nought but love: Pindarus, he / Was also there: there I might Virgil see: / Many brave wits I found, some looser rhymes, / By others writ, hath pleased the ancient times: / Ovid was one: after Catullus came: / Propertius next, his elegies the name / Of Cynthia bear: Tibullus, and the young / Greek poetess, who is received among / The noble troop for her rare Sapphic muse.

Thus looking here and there (as oft I use), / I spied much people on a flowery plain, / Amongst themselves disputes of love maintain.