AN " ELEGANT " NOTE [ TO CARDINAL GIOVANNI ] EXCUSING HIMSELF FOR DELAYING HIS RETURN TO AVIGNON OUT OF FEAR OF LAURA'S EYES

So much I dread the blaze and bright assault
Of her dear eyes where Love and Death agree
That, as a child the rod, so shamelessly
I fly and yield the battle by default;
From first to last, though lame I were and halt,
No place too fearsome proves but there I flee
To shun that glance whose dart is death to me,
Freezing the senses, turning them to salt:
Wherefore, if I return to see you late,
Lest I come too near what is death indeed,
Certes it is no fault in me to heed:
Nay more, to seek out what all shun, my fate,
And from my heart cast off this dread of death,
Surely were no light warrant of good faith.