... find ... 1807.]

* * * * *

FROM THE SAME

Translated 1805?—­Published 1807

One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—­Ed.

II

  No mortal object did these eyes behold
  When first they met the placid light of thine,
  And my Soul felt her destiny divine, [1]
  And hope of endless peace in me grew bold: 
  Heaven-born, the Soul a heaven-ward course must hold; 5
  Beyond the visible world she soars to seek
  (For what delights the sense is false and weak)
  Ideal Form, the universal mould. 
  The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest
  In that which perishes:  nor will he lend 10
  His heart to aught which doth on time depend. 
  ’Tis sense, unbridled will, and not true love,
  That [2] kills the soul:  love betters what is best,
  Even here below, but more in heaven above.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1807.

  When first saluted by the light of thine,
  When my soul ...

MS. letter to Sir George Beaumont.]

[Variant 2: 

1827.

  Which ... 1807.]

* * * * *

FROM THE SAME.  TO THE SUPREME BEING

Translated 1804?—­Published 1807

One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—­Ed.

III

  The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed
  If Thou the spirit give by which I pray: 
  My unassisted heart is barren clay,
  That [1] of its native self can nothing feed: 
  Of good and pious works thou art the seed, 5
  That [2] quickens only where thou say’st it may. 
  Unless Thou shew to us thine own true way
  No man can find it:  Father!  Thou must lead. 
  Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind
  By which such virtue may in me be bred 10
  That in thy holy footsteps I may tread;
  The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
  That I may have the power to sing of thee,
  And sound thy praises everlastingly.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1827.

  Which ... 1807.]

[Variant 2: 

1827.

  Which ... 1807.]

The sonnet from which the above is translated, is not wholly by Michael Angelo, the sculptor and painter, but is taken from patched-up versions of his poem by his nephew of the same name.  Michael Angelo only wrote the first eight lines, and these have been garbled in his nephew’s edition.  The original lines are thus given by Guasti in his edition of Michael Angelo’s Poems (1863) restored to their true reading, from the autograph MSS. in Rome and Florence.