Note 11 — PART I.
Reading edition
Footnote 11
:
(return)
The author wrote the verses first in English, but he found it easy to write them better in Italian. They stood in the text as below:—
Swallow! swallow! though so jetty Are your pinions, you are pretty: And what matter were it though You were blacker than a crow? Of the many birds that fly (And how many pass me by!) You're the first I ever prest, Of the many, to my breast: Therefore it is very right You should be my own delight.