HER DEATH WOULD LEAVE NATURE ITSELF IN DARKNESS

Wheresoever, among what maids she move,
Lovely or feather-light, she moves alone,
Subduing every lustre to her own,
As the day-star annuls night's twinkling drove.
With tongue of prophecy still whispers Love:
" While to our mortal sight that brow is shown,
Life shall be rich; but when the rose is blown,
I shall be dust of dreams men weary of.
Should Nature pluck the moon and sun away,
Silence the wind, each herb and flower uproot,
Rob man of reason, speech and sparkle, flay

WHEREIN PRAISING HER IS HIS DUTY AND ENTIRE RECOMPENSE

Erewhile I toiled, and with so just a reason,
And in such fervid verses to win hearing,
I seemed at length to feel a slight spark stirring
Through that heart's frost, though danced the summer breeze on
The world ... That cloud, whose web cloaked it like treason,
Broke at my first warm breath, or else incurring
The blame of others, to that blame demurring,
Her burning eyes withdrew for a brief season.
I ask no pity for myself, nor hate
For her, since neither is within my power:

HER INDIFFERENCE COMPELS HIM TO ENDURE A LIVING DEATH

The livelong day, the restless livelong dark
Marks my dull flood of tears; ah, doubly pour,
Impartial and imperious saviour,
In that dead hour of slumber's swarthy arc!
With such deep woe, such anguish sharp and stark
Is my heart weighted, wounded more and more
My sleepless eyes, none is so wretched, nor
Is any breast so much the Archer's mark.
Ah God! while lurid dawn on dawn breaks through,
While night steps on the heels of wide-eyed night,

WHEREIN HIS LADY IS THE REPOSITORY OF EVERY EXCELLENCE

Her noble blood beats in humility,
So golden the high heart, so pure the mind,
At once the flower and the fruit combined;
Her happy spirit mocks the solemn eye:
Thus, by her proud plumed aristocracy
Of stars — nay, by that Sovereign who enshrined
In her worth, honour, courage — she defined
The poet's dream — the poet's misery.
Virtue and Love in richest union dwell;
Her daily loveliness and natural grace
Blend to announce a noiseless miracle;

HER VARIOUS SPELLS THAT PUT HIM IN THRALL

Graces that liberal Heaven on few confers:
Rare virtue seen as seldom in our kind;
Ripe judgment with youth's golden tresses twined;
Ethereal loveliness stands, breathes and stirs
In her humility; perfect charm is hers;
Her voice moves like tall music in the mind;
She steps a goddess; fervent and refined
Her wit to break proud stubborn characters;
The lustre of her eyes turns hearts to stone,
Hangs lamps in hell and sets the night on fire;
Draws out our souls, lifts up or plunges down;

WHEREIN, THOUGH LOVE'S DEVOTED SERVANT THESE TWENTY YEARS, HIS SOLE WAGE IS TEARS

Felicitous in dreams, to brood content,
To grasp at shadows, chase the summer gust,
Through shoreless fathomless leagues of water thrust,
To build on sand, write on the windy tent
Of air, gaze at the sun till these eyes, spent
And broken by his splendour, drop to dust,
To drive down some soft slope with empty lust
The storm-hooved stag with cattle slow and bent;
Sightless and faint, begging an end to all,
Which I seek day and night with heart on fire,

WHEREIN HE EXPLAINS HIS LOVE-STRICKEN STATE, RECALLING THE YEAR, DAY, HOUR OF ITS ORIGIN

Desire presses, Love leads and presides;
Pleasure persuades and ancient habits hold;
Hope cheats and charms with flatteries as old,
And with her bright touch my heart's anguish chides:
It takes her hand, in her my heart confides,
Trusts to its blind and treacherous guide (Ah, cold
And cruel is Love!): the sense grows overbold:
On each wild wish a wilder passion rides!
Virtue and grace, beauty and honour — these

WHEREIN HE IS THE MOST MISERABLE OF LOVERS

From Spanish Ebro to Hydaspes dark,
Exploring ocean's every nook that ran
From the Red Sea to the cold Caspian —
In earth, in heaven you shall one Phaenix mark.
What favoured or what infamous bird swept stark
Across my star? Which Sister winds my span,
That I alone find Pity under ban
And live in Hell who hoped for Heaven's lark?
Speak not of her, but him, her guide, who pours
Her whole heart full of love and light, bestowing
Upon her spirit gifts to overflowing;

QUITTING VAUCLUSE, HIS SOUL STAYS BEHIND WITH LAURA

Those cherished hills which hold my spirit still
Where the heart lingers, though I tear my feet
Fiercely away, confront my dull retreat,
While I bear Love's dark burden by Love's will.
I marvel often that I can fulfil
The sweet yoke's duties which despair would cheat
In vain, that I can breathe and my pulse beat:
The more I run, the closer looms my ill.
And as the stag, by the dark arrow stricken,
The venomed iron rankling in his flank,
Flies the more swiftly as the red drops thicken,

WHEREIN, TRAVELING THE RHONE TO AVIGNON, THE POET IMPLORES THE RIVER TO KISS HER HAND, SINCE IT WILL REACH LAURA BEFORE HIM

Impetuous flood, that from thine Alpine bed,
Gnawing around thee, dost thy name acquire,
Like me both night and day thou dost conspire
Where love leads me and thou'rt by nature led:
Plunge on: thy course is never surfeited
With weariness, no slumber binds thy fire;
Yet, ere the ocean claims thy final hire,
Dally where fire and sky their brightness shed
Most bravely. There our sun's most fecund beam