And who shall curb this troubled deep,
      When Thou no more amidst the gloom
    Shalt chide the wrathful winds to sleep,
      And guide the labouring vessel home?

    For Thou art gone! that cloud so bright
      That bears Thee from our gaze away,
    Springs upward into dazzling light,
      And leaves us here to weep and pray.

Four additional stanzas, accepted as authentic by perhaps the most painstaking of Luis de Leon’s editors, are thus Englished by Churton: 

    Our life has lost its richest store,
      The balm for sorrow’s inward thorn,
    The hope, that, gladd’ning more and more,
      Out-brighten’d all the springs of morn.

    Ah me! my soul, what hateful chain
      Holds back thy freeborn spirit’s flight? 
    Oh break it, disenthrall’d from pain,
      And mount those azure depths of light.

    Why should’st thou fear?  What earth-born spell
      Is on thee, with thy choice at strife
    The soul no dying pang can quell,
      But loss of Christ is death in life.

    Dear Lord, and Friend, more dear to me
      Than all the names Earth’s love hath found,
    Through darkest gloom I’ll follow Thee,
      Or cheer’d with beaming glory round.

Now there is no question of mere executive skill and simple craftsmanship in Luis de Leon’s poems.  He is, indeed, always sound and competent in these respects; but artistry is not his supreme virtue as a poet.  He is ever prone to be a little rugged in his manner, and this ruggedness has proved something of a trap to the unwary.  Luis de Leon has no real mannerisms, and is no more to be parodied than is Shakespeare.  Yet it is sometimes difficult to distinguish him at his worst from his imitators at their best.  Though withheld so long from the public, Luis de Leon’s poems, while still in manuscript, were repeatedly imitated—­especially by Augustinians.  To my way of thinking, he is most nearly approached by his friend Arias Montano.  But it should be said that this is not the general verdict.  That goes decisively in favour of Miguel Sanchez, el Divino.  Miguel Sanchez is the author of a beautiful Cancion de Cristo Crucificado, a poem which, though not published till 1605 with the real writer’s name attached to it, has constantly been ascribed to Luis de Leon.[274] The Cancion is no doubt a composition of great charm and mystic unction; but it lacks the concentrated force of Luis de Leon.  Luis de Leon has a lofty dignity of his own; he outstrips all rivalry by virtue of his nobility, by virtue of his intellectual vigour, by virtue of sheer excellence rather than by curious refinements of technique.  These positive qualities defy reproduction by even the most accomplished of imitators.  It has been said that Luis de Leon’s verse, as well as his prose, has noticeable roughnesses; but let us not derive a wrong impression from this