He most famous works are a series of poems depicting his love for a young woman named Laura who he idealized and worshipped from afar. This poem is written in a particularly complex variation on a form called the sestina. Each stanza consists of six lines which end in a word which is repeated at the end of a line in all the other stanzas, but the words occur in a different order. After the sixth stanza occurs a seventh in which all six words are used in only three lines. Never have there been seen such beautiful eyes, in our times or in the first years, dissolving, melting me as the sun does the snow, from which flows so large a tear-filled shower which Love floods at the foot of the hard laurel with all its diamond branches and golden hair.
Death can strike down young men as well as old ones.
This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1 . If, after examining the table of contents of the complete volume, you are interested in considering it for use at your own campus, please contact Paul Brians . This page has been accessed times since December 18, 1998.