[excerpts] from Book I What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield:…

S’io credessi che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza più scosse. Ma per ció che giammai di questo fondo Non tornó viva…

II. A Game of Chess     The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne, Glowed on the marble, where the glass Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines From…

Thou hast committed— Fornication: but that was in another country, And besides, the wench is dead. The Jew of Malta. I Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon…

I made my song a coat Covered with embroideries Out of old mythologies From heel to throat; But the fools caught it, Wore it in the world’s eyes As though…

I thought no more was needed Youth to prolong Than dumb-bell and foil To keep the body young. O who could have foretold That the heart grows old? Though I…

If any man drew near When I was young, I thought, “He holds her dear,” And shook with hate and fear. But O! ’twas bitter wrong If he could pass…

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow…

I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when…

I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love; My…

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would…