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LA VIA NUOVA: 26, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A gentle thought there is will often start
Last Line: Who, looking on our grief, hath often grieved.'
Alternate Author Name(s): Dante; Alighieri, Dante


A GENTLE thought there is will often start,
Within my secret self, to speech of thee:
Also of Love it speaks so tenderly
That much in me consents and takes its part.
'And what is this,' the soul saith to the heart,
'That cometh thus to comfort thee and me,
And thence where it would dwell, thus potently
Can drive all other thoughts by its strange art?'
And the heart answers: 'Be no more at strife
'Twixt doubt and doubt: this is Love's messenger
And speaketh but his words, from him received;
And all the strength it owns and all the life
It draweth from the gentle eyes of her
Who, looking on our grief, hath often grieved.'





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