Angelo Poliziano, Lament on the Death of Lorenzo de Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici ("The Magnificent") was intensely interested in the arts and scholarship. He supported many artists (including Botticelli and Michelangelo), philosophers (Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola), musicians and authors and was a talented poet himself. The poet Angelo Poliziano and the Flemish-born composer Heinrich Isaac collaborated to produce his funeral ode. In the first stanza the poet wishes he were able to weep continuously for his late patron. The rest of the lament goes on to state that both poetry and music have fallen silent as a result of Lorenzo's death. The fact that this idea is expressed in beautiful words and music would not have struck anyone in the time as self-contradictory since extravagant praise of rulers was traditional, and not to be taken too literally. During the third stanza the tenor voice drops out symbolizing the death of Lorenzo, and only three voices remain, with the bass repeating over and over the line line from the funeral mass, "And rest in peace."

O That my head were
waters, and my eyes
a fount of tears,
that I might weep by day
and weep by night!

So mourns the widowed
turtledove,
so mourns the dying swan,
so mourns the nightingale(1)
Ah, woe is me!
O grief, o grief!

Lightning has struck
our laurel tree(2),
our laurel so dear
to all the muses and the dances of
the nymphs.
(Bass: And rest in peace.)

Beneath whose spreading boughs
Phoebus (3) himself more sweetly
played and sang.
Now all is mute
and there is none to hear.

(1) All three of these birds were associated with mourning. The swan was supposed to sing only before its own death.
(2) "Laurel" is a pun on "Lorenzo." The laurel wreath was the classical symbol of the arts because it was given as a prize in poetry contests.
(3) Phoebus Apollo was the classical god of poetry and music.

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http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/poliziano.html