Sonnet LXVII
SONNET LXVII.
Lasciato hai, Morte, senza sole il mondo.
HER TRUE WORTH WAS KNOWN ONLY TO HIM AND TO HEAVEN.
Death, thou the world, since that dire arrow sped,Sunless and cold hast left; Love weak and blind;Beauty and grace their brilliance have resign'd,And from my heavy heart all joy is fled;Honour is sunk, and softness banishèd.I weep alone the woes which all my kindShould weep—for virtue's fairest flower has pinedBeneath thy touch: what second blooms instead?Let earth, sea, air, with common wail bemoanMan's hapless race; which now, since Laura died,[Pg 296]A flowerless mead, a gemless ring appears.The world possess'd, nor knew her worth, till flown!I knew it well, who here in grief abide;And heaven too knows, which decks its forehead with my tears. Wrangham. Thou, Death, hast left this world's dark cheerless wayWithout a sun: Love blind and stripp'd of arms;Left mirth despoil'd; beauty bereaved of charms;And me self-wearied, to myself a prey;Left vanish'd, sunk, whate'er was courteous, gay:I only weep, yet all must feel alarms:If beauty's bud the hand of rapine harmsIt dies, and not a second views the day!Let air, earth, ocean weep for human kind;For human kind, deprived of Laura, seemsA flowerless mead, a ring whose gem is lost.None knew her worth while to this orb confined,Save me her bard, whose sorrow ceaseless streams,And heaven, that's made more beauteous at my cost.
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