| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The End of Earthly Love | | By Francesco Redi (1626–1697) |
| | Translated by Edmund Gosse
LOVE, thou hast had thy will with me! oh! say, | |
| What is there left for me to give thee more? | |
| Love, thou hast had thy will with me to-day, | |
| I can but give thee what thou hadst before! | |
| Oh! hungry Love, shall I devote my tears | 5 |
| To quench this never-tiring old desire? | |
| Behold! the sum of all my joys and fears | |
| Lies hidden behind thy quivering wings of fire! | |
| What wilt thou more? Oh! wilt thou that I die? | |
| Behold my breast before thee strained and bare! | 10 |
| Stab me to death, or wind my coils of hair | |
| Around my throat and slay me where I lie; | |
| Crush me or kill me, tyrannous God and fair, | |
| But with thy kisses stifle my last cry! | | | | |
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