Erect and firmly poised as any crane.

One charm remark, peculiarly hers

An elegance unmatched, with modesty combined;
And would you see it, in a living proof,"
Says Thought to me, "attend well to thy mind,
When, with a lady elegant and fair

Harmoniously conjoined, she moves along :
Then as the brilliant stars seem chased away,
By greater brightness of the advancing sun,
So vanish other charms when hers are viewed.
Think, then, how pleasing she must be
Whose loveliness and beauty equal are;

And beauty past compare in her is found.
Habits of virtue and of loyalty

Alone can please her and her cause can serve :
But in her welfare only place thy hope,"
My song, well mayst thou vouch for true,
That, since the day when first was born
A beauteous lady, none ever pleased like her
Thou celebratest, take her all in all:

For joined in her are found

Personal beauty and a virtuous mind :

Nor aught deficient, but some grains of pity.

Translation of Lyell.

TO LAURA'S EYES.

(Petrarch devotes three canzoni, of which this is one, to Laura's Eyes. These are often

referred to in Italy as "The Three Graces.")

FROM THE ITALIAN OF PETRARCH.

ADY, in your bright eyes

LA

Soft glancing round, I mark a holy light,

Pointing the arduous way that heavenward lies;

And to my practiced sight,

From thence, where Love enthroned, asserts his might,

Visibly, palpably, the soul beams forth.

This is the beacon guides to deeds of worth,

And urges me to seek the glorious goal;

This bids me leave the vulgar throng;

Nor can the human tongue

Tell how those orbs divine o'er all my soul

Exert their sweet control,

Both when hoar winter's frosts around are flung,
And when the Year puts on his youth again,

Jocund, as when this bosom first knew pain.

Oh! if in that high sphere,

From whence the Eternal Ruler of the stars
In this excelling work declared his might,
All be as fair and bright,

Loose me from forth my darksome prison here,
That to so glorious life the passage bars;
Then, in the wonted tumult of my breast,
I hail boon Nature, and the genial day
That gave me being, and a fate so blest,
And her who bade hope beam
Upon my soul; for till then burdensome
Was life itself become;

But now, elate with touch of self-esteem,

High thoughts and sweet within that heart arise,
Of which the warders are those beauteous eyes.

No joy so exquisite

Did Love or fickle Fortune e'er devise,

In partial mood, for favored votaries,

But I would barter it

For one dear glance of those angelic eyes, Whence springs my peace as from its living root.

O vivid luster! of power absolute

O'er all my being-source of that delight,
By which consumed I sink, a willing prey.
As fades each lesser ray

Before your splendor more intense and bright,
So to my raptured heart,

When your surpassing sweetness you impart,
No other thought of feeling may remain
Where you, with Love himself, despotic reign.

All sweet emotions e'er

By happy lovers felt in every clime,
Together all, may not with mine compare,

When, as from time to time,

I catch from that dark radiance rich and deep
A ray in which, disporting, Love is seen;
And I believe that from my cradled sleep,
By Heaven provided this resource hath been,
'Gainst adverse Fortune, and my nature frail.
Wronged am I by that veil,

And the fair hand which oft the light eclipse,
That all my bliss hath wrought,

And whence the passion struggling on my lips,
Both day and night, to vent the breast o'erfraught,
Still varying as I read her varying thought.

For that (with pain I find)

Not Nature's poor endowments may alone
Render me worthy of a look so kind,
I strive to raise my mind

To match with the exalted hopes I own,
And fires, though all-engrossing, pure as mine
If prone to good, averse to all things base,
Contemner of what worldlings covet most,
I may become by long self-discipline.
Haply this humble boast

May win me in her fair esteem a place ;
For sure the end and aim

Of all my tears, my sorrowing heart's sole claim,
Were the soft trembling of relenting eyes,

The generous lover's last, best, dearest prize.

Translation of Lady Dacre.

TO LEONORA.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF TASSO.

HY name is Honor's symbol, wholly fair,

THY

Fit for an angel like thyself to bear;

The swan, not siren's music forms its sound,

The ciphers purple on a golden ground.

Go search on high from star to star to find

The thing most precious, shining and refined.

Bring gems from earth, bring pearls from the blue sea,

Their various glories show combined in thee.
Whence he who named these wished to represent

Thy rich perfections and divine descent,

As he who formed thee, with his mind pursued

The ideal image of celestial Good.

And thou, mine idol, formst in soul and frame

The living echo to that perfect name;

Nor is it beauty's fault, if, in the stir

Of passion, men make love to it and err.

Translation of J. H. Wiffin.

TO VITTORIA COLONNA.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF MICHAEL ANGELO.

YES!

ES! hope may with my strong desire keep pace,
And I be undeluded, unbetrayed;

For if of our affections none find grace

In sight of Heaven, then wherefore hath God made

The world which we inhabit? Better plea

Love can not have, than that in loving thee

Glory to that Eternal Peace is paid,
Who such divinity to thee imparts

As hallows and makes pure all gentle hearts.
His hope is treacherous only whose love dies
With beauty, which is varying every hour:
But in chaste hearts, uninfluenced by the power
Of outward change, there blooms a deathless flower,
That breathes on earth the air of Paradise.

Translation of William Wordsworth.

THE MIGHT OF ONE FAIR FACE.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF MICHAEL ANGELO.

HE might of one fair face sublimes my love,

TH

For it hath weaned my heart from low desires;

Nor death I heed, nor purgatorial fires.

Thy beauty, antepast of joys above,

Instructs me in the bliss that saints approve ;

For O how good, how beautiful must be
The God that made so good a thing as thee,
So fair an image of the heavenly Dove!

Forgive me if I can not turn away

From those sweet eyes that are my earthly heaven,