Quando Ad Un Giogo Ed in Un Tempo Quivi

When to one yoke at once I saw the height / Of gods and men subdued by Cupid's might, / I took example from their cruel fate, / And by their sufferings eased my own hard state; / Since Phoebus and Leander felt like pain, / The one a god, the other but a man; / One snare caught Juno and the Carthage dame / (Her husband's death prepared her funeral flame -- / 'Twas not a cause that Virgil maketh one); / I need not grieve, that unprepared, alone, / Unarm'd, and young, I did receive a wound, / Or that my enemy no hurt hath found / By Love; or that she clothed him in my sight, / And took his wings, and marr'd his winding flight; / No angry lions send more hideous noise / From their beat breasts, nor clashing thunder's voice / Rends heaven, frights earth, and roareth through the air / With greater force than Love had raised, to dare / Encounter her of whom I write; and she / As quick and ready to assail as he: / Enceladus when Etna most he shakes, / Nor angry Scylla, nor Charybdis makes / So great and frightful noise, as did the shock / Of this (first doubtful) battle: none could mock / Such earnest war; all drew them to the height / To see what 'mazed their hearts and dimm'd their sight.

Victorious Love a threatening dart did show / His right hand held; the other bore a bow, / The string of which he drew just by his ear; / No leopard could chase a frighted deer / (Free, or broke loose) with quicker speed than he / Made haste to wound; fire sparkled from his eye.