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An epic achievement, borne of sleepless nights and several seasons muted, no doubt.

This book couldn't have been written at age 20, thus breathes from its oaken cask in timely fashion.

Great writing by a skilled craftsman resonates forever. Cheers to my modern day Petrarch;

XV

O ye who trace through scattered verse the sound

Of those long sighs wherewith I fed my heart

Amid youth’s errors, when in greater part

That man unlike this present man was found;

For the mixed strain which here I do compound

Of empty hopes and pains that vainly start,

Whatever soul hath truly felt love’s smart,

With pity and with pardon will abound.

But now I see full well how long I earned

All men’s reproof; and oftentimes my soul

Lies crushed by its own grief; and it doth seem

For such misdeed shame is the fruitage whole,

And wild repentance and the knowledge learned

That worldly joy is still a short, short dream.

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