From The Italian

AS a little child whom his mother has chidden, Wrecked in the dark in a storm of weeping, Sleeps with his tear-stained eyes closed hidden And, with fists clenched, sobs still in his sleeping, So in my breast sleeps Love, O white lady, What does he care though the rest are playing, With rattles and drums in the woodlands shady, Happy children, whom Joy takes maying! Ah, do not wake him, lest you should hear him Scolding the others, breaking their rattles, Smashing their drums, when their play comes near him-- Love who, for me, is a god of battles!