Tasso to Eleonora :
A Canzonet and Sonnet.
As vapour risen from the sea1
Descends on earth in dews,2
By equal law returns to thee3
My tributary muse.4
To thee the fountain of my song,5
My purest, dearest thoughts belong.6
As many a forest flower by night7
With leaves enfolded lies,8
But with the coming of the light9
Its fragrant odours rise ;10
Or as upon the grassy blade11
The sun reveals the dew,12
I owe and vow, fair worshipped maid,13
My brightest beams to you.14
To life, to light, rewakened now,15
The sunshine of my soul art thou.16
Sonnet.
Calm, pure, and mirroring the blue above,17
To whom comminglingly my life’s streams flow,18
Making that one which many seemed but now,19
Thou art the sum and ocean of my love !20
What though my soul rebellious pulses prove
:21
These are the gusts that o’er the surface play,22
The fleeting colours painted on the spray ;23
They cannot in its depths the ocean move.24
In the Elysium of thy love I dwell,25
And at its lucid fountain in thine eyes26
Immortal longings of the soul allay.27
Vainly thy pride’s dissembling lips devise28
How best the dear conclusion to repel,29
The silent message of those orbs unsay.30