Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona, “Love that in my mind discourses to me of my lady desirously,” which is the second canzone of the _Convivio_ (quoted in _V. E._ ii. 6), the amorous song that Casella was to sing “met in the milder shades of Purgatory.” It is one of Dante’s lyrical masterpieces. Hardly less beautiful is the canzone, likewise cited in the _De Vulgari Eloquentia_ (_V. E._ ii. 5, II): Amor, che movi tua vertù dal cielo, “Love that movest thy power from heaven”; with a mystical comparison of the workings of love to those of the sun and striking lines on the supernatural power of the illumined imagination. This allegorical group may be regarded as closed by the canzone: Io sento si d’Amor la gran possanza, “I feel so the great power of love,” in which Dante represents himself as too young to obtain his lady’s grace, but is content to serve on, finding the quest of philosophic truth its own reward. This poem has two _commiati_ (the _commiato_, or _tornata_, being the stanza or part of a stanza, or a few independent lines, added as an address or farewell at the end of a canzone); both seem to imply that philosophic verse may be the instrument of political or social reform.[15] (_d_) Dante originally held that Italian poetry should only be used for writing upon love, and therefore, in his younger days, a philosophical poem would naturally take the form of a love ode. In the _Vita Nuova_, he argues “against those who rhyme upon any matter other than amorous; seeing that such mode of speech was originally found for speaking of love” (_V. N._ xxv). His views naturally widened before he wrote his later canzoni (_cf. V. E._ ii. 2); but when, lacking inspiration for a higher lyrical flight or baffled by some metaphysical problem, he turns to set erring men right in didactic canzoni on some humbler ethical subject, he represents himself as so doing because out of favour with his lady or deserted by love. Thus, “The sweet rhymes of love, which I was wont to seek in my thoughts, needs must I leave”-- Le dolci rime d’amor, ch’i’ solia --opens the canzone on the spiritual nature of true _gentilezza_ (inspired in part by Guinizelli), which is expounded in the fourth treatise of the _Convivio_, and, although somewhat unequal, contains one ineffable stanza upon the noble soul in life’s four stages. A companion poem: Poscia ch’Amor del tutto m’ ha lasciato,