TESTO DEL LIED

"How long shall this"
di Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

How long shall this like dying life endure,
And know no end of her own miserie?
But waste and weare away in termes unsure.
Twixt feare and hope depending doubtfully:
Yet better were att once to let me die,
And shew the last ensample of your pride
Then to torment me thus with crueltie,
To prove your powre, which I too well have tride.

But yet if in your hardned brest ye hide
A close intent at last to shew me grace,
Then all the woes and wrecks which I abide,
As meanes of blis I gladly will embrace,
And wish that more and greater they might be.
That greater meed at last may turne to me.