Sonnet XVI
SONNET XVI.
Sì breve è 'l tempo e 'l pensier sì veloce.
THE REMEMBRANCE OF HER CHASES SADNESS FROM HIS HEART.
So brief the time, so fugitive the thoughtWhich Laura yields to me, though dead, again,Small medicine give they to my giant pain;Still, as I look on her, afflicts me nought.Love, on the rack who holds me as he brought,Fears when he sees her thus my soul retain,Where still the seraph face and sweet voice reign,Which first his tyranny and triumph wrought.[Pg 248]As rules a mistress in her home of right,From my dark heavy heart her placid browDispels each anxious thought and omen drear.My soul, which bears but ill such dazzling light,Says with a sigh: "O blessed day! when thouDidst ope with those dear eyes thy passage here!"
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