ah! i just saw in one of de ronsard’s marie sonnets (marie, baisez-moy) this:Pendant que nous vivons, entr�aimons nous, Marie,it must take as its source catullus’s vivamus lesbia atque amemus etc (even the long somme de fer (lovely!) borrows from the nox perpetua.) i love finding sources and analogues!
Amour ne regne point sur la troupe blesmie
Des morts, qui sont sillez d�un long somme de fer.also, entr’aimons nous is another great construction, puts one in mind of donne’s valediction and “inter-assured of the mind.”
and is one also minded to hear an echo of somme de fer in edna st vincent millay: “some granite night shall find the mutual flame gone out”?)
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird