Angelo di Costanzo

Angelo di Costanzo Poems

Angelo di Costanzo Biography

Angelo di Costanzo (c. 1507 – 1591), Italian historian and poet, was born at Naples about 1507. He lived in a literary circle, and fell in love with the beautiful Vittoria Colonna. His great work, Le Istorie del regno di Napoli dal 1250 fino al 1498, first appeared at Naples in 1572, and was the fruit of thirty or forty years labour; but nine more years were devoted to the task before it was issued in its final form at Aquila (1581). It is one of the best known histories of Naples, and the style is distinguished by clearness, simplicity and elegance.)

The Best Poem Of Angelo di Costanzo

Sonnet

The lyre that on the banks of Mincius sung
Daphnie and Melibceus in such strains,
That never on Arcadia's hills or plains
Have rustic notes with sweeter echoes rung;
When now its chords, more deep and tuneful strung,
Had sung of rural gods to listening swains,
And that great Exile's deeds and pious pains
Who from Anchises and the goddess sprung,
The shepherd hung it on yon spreading oak,
Where, if winds breathe the sacred strings among,
It seems as if some voice in anger spoke:
'Let none dare touch me of the unhallowed throng:
Unless some kindred hand my strains awoke,
To Tityrus alone my chords belong.'

Angelo di Costanzo Comments