Thrilling my very marrow and my bones.
Love show’d to me, nay, sculptured on my heart,
That sweet and sparkling tear, and those soft words
Wrote with a diamond on its inmost core,
Where with his constant and ingenious keys
He still returneth often, to draw thence
True tears of mine and long and heavy sighs.
MACGREGOR.
SONNET CXXIII.
I’ vidi in terra angelici costumi.
THE EFFECTS OF HER GRIEF.
On earth reveal’d
the beauties of the skies,
Angelic features, it was mine
to hail;
Features, which wake my mingled
joy and wail,
While all besides like dreams
or shadows flies.
And fill’d with tears
I saw those two bright eyes,
Which oft have turn’d
the sun with envy pale;
And from those lips I heard—oh!
such a tale,
As might awake brute Nature’s
sympathies!
Wit, pity, excellence, and
grief, and love
With blended plaint so sweet
a concert made,
As ne’er was given to
mortal ear to prove:
And heaven itself such mute
attention paid,
That not a breath disturb’d
the listening grove—
Even aether’s wildest
gales the tuneful charm obey’d.
WRANGHAM.
Yes, I beheld
on earth angelic grace,
And charms divine which mortals
rarely see,
Such as both glad and pain
the memory;
Vain, light, unreal is all
else I trace:
Tears I saw shower’d
from those fine eyes apace,
Of which the sun ofttimes
might envious be;
Accents I heard sigh’d
forth so movingly,
As to stay floods, or mountains
to displace.
Love and good sense, firmness,
with pity join’d
And wailful grief, a sweeter
concert made
Than ever yet was pour’d
on human ear:
And heaven unto the music
so inclined,
That not a leaf was seen to
stir the shade;
Such melody had fraught the
winds, the atmosphere.
NOTT.
SONNET CXXIV.
Quel sempre acerbo ed onorato giorno.
HE RECALLS HER AS HE SAW HER WHEN IN TEARS.
That ever-painful,
ever-honour’d day
So left her living image on
my heart
Beyond or lover’s wit
or poet’s art,
That oft to it will doting
memory stray.
A gentle pity softening her
bright mien,
Her sorrow there so sweet
and sad was heard,
Doubt in the gazer’s
bosom almost stirr’d
Goddess or mortal, which made
heaven serene.
Fine gold her hair, her face
as sunlit snow,
Her brows and lashes jet,
twin stars her eyne,
Whence the young archer oft
took fatal aim;
Each loving lip—whence,
utterance sweet and low
Her pent grief found—a
rose which rare pearls line,
Her tears of crystal and her
sighs of flame.