• From the Italian by John Edward Taylor
    THE MIGHT of one fair face sublimes my love,
    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,...

  • Betrothed to Righteousness might be

    An Ecstasy discreet

    But Nature relishes the Pinks

    Which she was taught to eat —

  • It might be lonelier

    Without the Loneliness —

    I'm so accustomed to my Fate —

    Perhaps the Other — Peace —


    Would interrupt the Dark —

    And crowd the little Room —

    Too scant — by Cubits — to contain

    The Sacrament — of Him —


    I am not used to Hope —

    It might...

  • The Grace — Myself — might not obtain —

    Confer upon My flower —

    Refracted but a Countenance —

    For I — inhabit Her —

  • The right to perish might be thought

    An undisputed right —

    Attempt it, and the Universe

    Upon the opposite

    Will concentrate its officers —

    You cannot even die

    But nature and mankind must pause

    To pay you scrutiny.

  • They might not need me but; they might.

    I'll let my Head be just in sight;

    A smile as small as mine might be

    Precisely their necessity.

  • Wert Thou but ill — that I might show thee

    How long a Day I could endure

    Though thine attention stop not on me

    Nor the least signal, Me assure —


    Wert Thou but Stranger in ungracious country —

    And Mine — the Door

    Thou paused at, for a passing bounty —

    No More —


    Accused...