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Torquato Tasso
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Torquato Tasso poems, quotations and biography on Torquato Tasso poet page. Read all poems of Torquato Tasso and infos about Torquato Tasso.
Torquato Tasso was born in Sorrento, near Naples in Italy, in 1544. As a young man he was educated by Jesuits at the Court of the Dukes of Urbino and later studied law and philosophy at the University of Padua. He completed his studies at the University of Bologna, from where he later received an invitation, in 1565, to join the brilliant court of the Este at Ferrara, where he remained for many years. There he wrote a number of beautiful, ltrical poems. He had already achieved fame prior to this when, aged just 18, he published his chivlaric poem Rinaldo in 1562.
Other works by Tasso include the pastoral play Aminta (1573) and his masterpiece Gerusalemme Liberata (Jeusralem ... more »
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Torquato Tasso Poems
Hedge, That Divides The Lovely
Hedge, that divides the lovely
Garden, and myself from me,
Never in you so fair a rose I see... more »
Jerusalem Delivered - Book 01 - Part 01
THE ARGUMENT.
God sends his angel to Tortosa down,
Godfrey unites the Christian Peers and Knights;
And all the Lords and Princes of renown... more »
Ecco Mormorar L'Onde (Now The Waves Murmur)
Ecco mormorar l'onde,
E tremolar le fronde
A l'aura mattutina, e gli arboscelli,
E sovra i verdi rami i vaghi augelli... more »
Jerusalem Delivered - Book 03 - Part 02
XVI
Soon was the prey out of their hands recovered,
By step and step the Frenchmen gan retire,
Till on a little hill at last they hovered,... more »
Jerusalem Delivered - Book 02 - Part 07
LXXXVI
"But if our sins us of his help deprive,
Of his high justice let no mercy fall;
Yet should our deaths us some contentment give,... more »
Jerusalem Delivered - Book 01 - Part 03
XXVI
"Turks, Persians conquered, Antiochia won,
Be glorious acts, and full of glorious praise,
By Heaven's mere grace, not by our prowess done:... more »
Jerusalem Delivered - Book 01 - Part 02
XI
Thus when the Lord discovered had, and seen
The hidden secrets of each worthy's breast,
Out of the hierarchies of angels sheen... more »
All poems of Torquato Tasso »
Comments about Torquato Tasso
Jerusalem Delivered - Book 02 - Part 07
LXXXVI
"But if our sins us of his help deprive,
Of his high justice let no mercy fall;
Yet should our deaths us some contentment give,
To die, where Christ received his burial,
So might we die, not envying them that live;
So would we die, not unrevenged all:
Nor Turks, nor Christians, if we perish such,
Have cause to joy, or to complain too much.
LXXXVII
"Think not that wars we love, and strife affect,
Or that we hate sweet peace, or rest denay,
Think not your sovereign's friendship we reject,
Because we list not in our conquests stay:
But for it ...
A book on Tasso, advertised on the Net, says that Tasso is famous for his Sonnet to his cats at St Ann, and that it is a satirical poem. The book quotes four or 5 lines. Obviously, this sonnet by Tasso has never got into English, and it would go viral if it did get into English and went up on the Net,
Great piece..! The piece of work is outstanding..!!
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The first attempt to translate Gerusalemme liberata into English was made by Richard Carew, who published his version of the first five cantos as Godfrey of Bulloigne or the recoverie of Hierusalem in 1594.
More significant was the complete rendering by Edward Fairfax which appeared in 1600 and has been acclaimed as one of the finest English verse translations.
There is also an eighteenth-century translation by John Hoole, and modern versions by Anthony Esolen and Max Wickert.
Tasso's poem remained popular among educated English readers and was, at least until the end of the 19th century, considered one of the supreme achievements of Western literature.
Somewhat eclipsed in the Modernist period, its fame is showing signs of recovering.
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== [from Wikipedia] ==
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The fame of Tasso's poem quickly spread throughout the European continent. In England, Sidney, Daniel and Drayton seem to have admired it, and, most importantly, Edmund Spenser described Tasso as an excellente poete and made use of elements from Gerusalemme liberata in The Faerie Queene. The description of Redcrosse's vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem in the First Book owes something to Rinaldo's morning vision in Canto 18 of Gerusalemme. In the twelfth canto of Book Two, Spenser's enchantress Acrasia is partly modelled on Tasso's Armida and the English poet directly imitated two stanzas from the Italian. The portrayal of Satan and the demons in the first two books of Milton's Paradise Lost is also indebted to Tasso's poem.
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- [from Wikipedia] -