Quelle Pietose Rime, in Ch' Io M' Accorsi

TO ANTONIO OF FERRARA, WHO, IN A POEM, HAD LAMENTED PETRARCH'S SUPPOSED / DEATH.

Those pious lines wherein are finely met / Proofs of high genius and a spirit kind, / Had so much influence on my grateful mind / That instantly in hand my pen I set / To tell you that death's final blow -- which yet / Shall me and every mortal surely find -- / I have not felt, though I, too, nearly join'd / The confines of his realm without regret; / But I turn'd back again because I read / Writ o'er the threshold that the time to me / Of life predestinate not all was fled, / Though its last day and hour I could not see.

Then once more let your sad heart comfort know, / And love the living worth which dead it honour'd so.

MACGREGOR.