WRANGHAM.

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 taught
    Becoming mastery o’er its wishes wild;
    Speech dignified, in which, united, smiled
    All courtesy, with purity of thought;
    Virtue and beauty, that uprooted aught
    Of baser temper had my heart defiled: 
    Eyes, in whose glance man is beatified—­
    Awful, in pride of virtue, to restrain
    Aspiring hopes that justly are denied,
    Then prompt the drooping spirit to sustain! 
    These, beautiful in every change, supplied
    Health to my soul, that else were sought in vain.

    DACRE.

SONNET LXXXVIII.

Spirto felice, che si dolcemente.

BEHOLDING IN FANCY THE SHADE OF LAURA, HE TELLS HER THE LOSS THAT THE WORLD SUSTAINED IN HER DEPARTURE.

      Blest spirit, that with beams so sweetly clear
    Those eyes didst bend on me, than stars more bright,
    And sighs didst breathe, and words which could delight
    Despair; and which in fancy still I hear;—­
    I see thee now, radiant from thy pure sphere
    O’er the soft grass, and violet’s purple light,
    Move, as an angel to my wondering sight;
    More present than earth gave thee to appear. 
    Yet to the Cause Supreme thou art return’d: 
    And left, here to dissolve, that beauteous veil
    In which indulgent Heaven invested thee. 
    Th’ impoverish’d world at thy departure mourn’d: 
    For love departed, and the sun grew pale,
    And death then seem’d our sole felicity.

    CAPEL LOFFT.

      O blessed Spirit! who those sun-like eyes
    So sweetly didst inform and brightly fill,
    Who the apt words didst frame and tender sighs
    Which in my fond heart have their echo still. 
    Erewhile I saw thee, glowing with chaste flame,
    Thy feet ’mid violets and verdure set,
    Moving in angel not in mortal frame,
    Life-like and light, before me present yet! 
    Her, when returning with thy God to dwell,
    Thou didst relinquish and that fair veil given
    For purpose high by fortune’s grace to thee: 
    Love at thy parting bade the world farewell;
    Courtesy died; the sun abandon’d heaven,
    And Death himself our best friend ’gan to be.

    MACGREGOR.

SONNET LXXXIX.

Deh porgi mano all’ affannato ingegno.

HE BEGS LOVE TO ASSIST HIM, THAT HE MAY WORTHILY CELEBRATE HER.