Online: Michelangelo 101

Online: Michelangelo 101

Phoebus never stretches – never hugs with light the whole circumference of this cold, damp, globe and so, by the rabble, we are always told that sun misunderstood is night. She is so feeble, if a man should strike the frailest match, her life is robbed –broken and split under flint and logs, she is so nervous and so shy. And yet, she’s daughter to the sun and earth if, really, she is anything at all; the latter holds her shadow and the former gives it birth. But they’re mistaken who, for all this, call her mighty. She’s a widow – dour, and so desperate that, for her, a firefly’s glimmer is an act of war.

Online: Michelangelo 103

Ogni van chiuso, ogni coperto loco, quantunche ogni materia circumscrive, serba la notte, quando il giorno vive, contro al solar suo luminoso gioco. E s’ella è vinta pur da fiamma o foco, da lei dal sol son discacciate e prive con più vil cosa ancor sue specie dive, tal c’ogni verme assai ne rompe o poco. Quel che resta scoperto al sol, che ferve per mille vari semi e mille piante, il fier bifolco con l’aratro assale; ma l’ombra sol a piantar l’uomo serve. Dunche, le notti più ch’e’ dì son sante, quanto l’uom più d’ogni altro frutto vale.