Sonnet LXXXVII
SONNET LXXXVII.
Dolci durezze e placide repulse.
HE OWES HIS OWN SALVATION TO THE VIRTUOUS CONDUCT OF LAURA.
O sweet severity, repulses mild,With chasten'd love, and tender pity fraught;Graceful rebukes, that to mad passion taughtBecoming mastery o'er its wishes wild;Speech dignified, in which, united, smiledAll courtesy, with purity of thought;Virtue and beauty, that uprooted aughtOf baser temper had my heart defiled:[Pg 316]Eyes, in whose glance man is beatified—Awful, in pride of virtue, to restrainAspiring hopes that justly are denied,Then prompt the drooping spirit to sustain!These, beautiful in every change, suppliedHealth to my soul, that else were sought in vain.