Petrarch - Sonnet CXCVI lyrics

THE EVIL RESULTS OF UNRESTRAINED ANGER What though the ablest artists of old time Left us the sculptured bust, the imaged form Of conq'ring Alexander, wrath o'ercame And made him for the while than Philip less? Wrath to such fury valiant Tydeus drove That dying he devour'd his slaughter'd foe; Wrath made not Sylla merely blear of eye, But blind to all, and k**'d him in the end. Well Valentinian knew that to such pain Wrath leads, and Ajax, he whose d**h it wrought. Strong against many, 'gainst himself at last. Wrath is brief madness, and, when unrestrain'd, Long madness, which its master often leads To shame and crime, and haply e'en to d**h. Anon.