Lady, how can it chance--yet this we see
In long experience--that will longer last
A living image carved from quarries vast
Than its own maker, who dies presently?
Cause yieldeth to effect if this so be,
And even Nature is by Art at surpassed;
This know I, who to Art have given the past,
But see that Time is breaking faith with me.
Perhaps on both of us long life can I
Either in color or in stone bestow,
By now portraying each in look and mien;
So that a thousand years after we die,
How fair thou wast, and I how full of woe,
And wherefore I so loved thee, may be seen.
To Vittoria Colonna. (sonnet V.)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1)
Poem topics: faith, life, nature, time, chance, experience, lady, color, stone, bestow, long, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about To Vittoria Colonna. (sonnet V.) poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Best Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow