Yet doth my lady, by compassion led,
Return to solace my unfailing woe;
Earth yields no other balm:—oh! could I tell
How bright she seems, and how her accents flow,
Not unto man alone Love’s flames would spread,
But even bears and tigers share the spell.
WROTTESLEY.
SONNET XVI.
Si breve e ’l tempo e ’l pensier si veloce.
THE REMEMBRANCE OF HER CHASES SADNESS FROM HIS HEART.
So brief the time,
so fugitive the thought
Which Laura yields to me,
though dead, again,
Small medicine give they to
my giant pain;
Still, as I look on her, afflicts
me nought.
Love, on the rack who holds
me as he brought,
Fears when he sees her thus
my soul retain,
Where still the seraph face
and sweet voice reign,
Which first his tyranny and
triumph wrought.
As rules a mistress in her
home of right,
From my dark heavy heart her
placid brow
Dispels each anxious thought
and omen drear.
My soul, which bears but ill
such dazzling light,
Says with a sigh: “O
blessed day! when thou
Didst ope with those dear
eyes thy passage here!”
MACGREGOR.
SONNET XVII.
Ne mai pietosa madre al caro figlio.
HER COUNSEL ALONE AFFORDS HIM RELIEF.
Ne’er did
fond mother to her darling son,
Or zealous spouse to her beloved
mate,
Sage counsel give, in perilous
estate,
With such kind caution, in
such tender tone,
As gives that fair one, who,
oft looking down
On my hard exile from her
heavenly seat,
With wonted kindness bends
upon my fate
Her brow, as friend or parent
would have done:
Now chaste affection prompts
her speech, now fear,
Instructive speech, that points
what several ways
To seek or shun, while journeying
here below;
Then all the ills of life
she counts, and prays
My soul ere long may quit
this terrene sphere:
And by her words alone I’m
soothed and freed from woe.
NOTT.
Ne’er to
the son, in whom her age is blest,
The anxious mother—nor
to her loved lord
The wedded dame, impending
ill to ward,
With careful sighs so faithful
counsel press’d,
As she, who, from her high
eternal rest,
Bending—as though
my exile she deplored—
With all her wonted tenderness
restored,
And softer pity on her brow
impress’d!
Now with a mother’s
fears, and now as one
Who loves with chaste affection,
in her speech
She points what to pursue
and what to shun!
Our years retracing of long,
various grief,
Wooing my soul at higher good
to reach,
And while she speaks, my bosom
finds relief!