57. On Simon Memmi's Portrait of Laura -
ON SIMON MEMMI'S PORTRAIT OF LAURA
Had Polycletus or his rivals gazed
A thousand years on her who shames all art,
A thousand years had shown the lesser part
Of that great beauty which has left me dazed.
But Simon sure, in Paradise amazed,
Whence came this gentle Lady of my heart,
Saw her and traced her loveliness as chart
And proof on earth that there such beauty blazed.
Truly the work was one in Heaven alone
To be imagined, not among us here
Where the flesh clouds the soul; by Heaven's grace
He dreamed the miracle; but stumbling down
To feel the heat and cold of this our sphere,
His mortal hand failed that immortal face.
Had Polycletus or his rivals gazed
A thousand years on her who shames all art,
A thousand years had shown the lesser part
Of that great beauty which has left me dazed.
But Simon sure, in Paradise amazed,
Whence came this gentle Lady of my heart,
Saw her and traced her loveliness as chart
And proof on earth that there such beauty blazed.
Truly the work was one in Heaven alone
To be imagined, not among us here
Where the flesh clouds the soul; by Heaven's grace
He dreamed the miracle; but stumbling down
To feel the heat and cold of this our sphere,
His mortal hand failed that immortal face.
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