Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/357

CANTO V.] Love, who to none beloved to love again

Remits, seized me with wish to please, so strong,

That, as thou see'st, yet, yet it doth remain.

Love to one death conducted us along,

But Caina waits for him our life who ended:"

These were the accents uttered by her tongue.—

Since I first listened to these Souls offended,

I bowed my visage, and so kept it till—

'What think'st thou?' said the bard; when I unbended,

And recommenced: 'Alas! unto such ill

How many sweet thoughts, what strong ecstacies,

Led these their evil fortune to fulfill!'

And then I turned unto their side my eyes,

And said, 'Francesca, thy sad destinies

Have made me sorrow till the tears arise.

But tell me, in the Season of sweet sighs,

By what and how thy Love to Passion rose,

So as his dim desires to recognize?'

Then she to me: 'The greatest of all woes

Is to remind us of our happy days

In misery, and that thy teacher knows.

But if to learn our Passion's first root preys

Upon thy spirit with such Sympathy,

I will do even as he who weeps and says.