‘Wanton Wandering Winds’ and Other Petrarchan Love Sonnets by Daniel Howard

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Wanton Wandering Winds

Those wanton wandering winds, my darling fair,
Whose western currents comb in several ways
And lose themselves within the marvellous maze
Of locks luxuriant that you loosely wear;
So sigh upon your silken sable hair
A breeze as yet unboiled by summer rays,
That its slight chill your every strand does raise,
Which fly about and float within the air;
Would that your breath against my cheek could brush,
Whose coolness would make all my limbs so quiver
(Though boil the blood within each vessel’s river),
That red upon my flushing face would rush;
Then I would think your hair’s not as o’erblown
As my poor trembling heart’s in tumults thrown.

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An Actor in Thalian Guise

Much like an actor in Thalian guise,
My mask maintains a smile of cheerful vein,
So that the great and good I entertain,
Though I regard my prop a poor disguise;
For were someone to look within my eyes,
My absent pensiveness would ‘pear as plain
As that the part I play is but a pain,
Upon which sight one would in err surmise
That in myself I dwell, and swell with pride,
Supposing to that poison I am prone;
That of one person I do think alone,
And each and every other cast aside;
They’d be but half aright, who cannot see
That all my thoughts incline with her to be.

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Reflections Upon Our Final Parting

When sleep so heavy on my eyes shall weigh,
That unbeknownst to me I will have drawn
For good my curtains closed henceforth to dawn,
And never gaze again upon the ray;
Oh when, I say, the burden of this clay
That I have borne e’er since I was but spawn,
From weary shoulders is at last withdrawn,
And but the memory of a bygone day;
Then I’ll be greeted by the greatest peace,
Relieving me of every mortal hope;
I’ll be beyond the reach of sorrow’s scope,
And all my tiresome thoughts at once will cease;
There we will meet again, and know the pain
Produced upon our parting was but vain.

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Daniel Joseph Howard studied law in his native Ireland before taking his MA in philosophy at King’s College London. After working in the European Commission, he is now pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Boston College.