Things are beheld that may not be described;
Such their sublimity and nature are.

And by their beams upon my heart is showered
Such fear as makes me tremble and exclaim:
Here will I never venture to return:
But soon are all my resolutions lost;
And thither I return, again to fall;

Giving new courage to the timorous eyes
That had already felt her powerful beams.
Alas! when there arrived, my eyes are closed,
And the desire which leads them perisheth :
Hence let my state, O Love, engage thy care,

Lyel

6

Per una ghirlandetta

[Seems to refer to some episode similar to that narrated in the section on pp. 69-75]

A garland have I seen

So fair, that every flower

Will cause my sighs to flow.

Lady, I saw a garland borne by you,

Lovely as fairest flower;

And blithely fluttering over it, beheld

A little angel of Love's gentle quire,
Who sung an artful lay,

Which said, who me beholds

Shall praise my sovereign lord.

Let me be found where tender floweret blooms,

Then will my sighs break forth,

Then shall I say, my lady fair and kind

Bears on her head the flowerets of my Sire;
But to increase desire,

Soon shall my lady come

Crowned by the hand of Love.

Of flowers these new and trifling rhymes of mine

A ballad have composed;

From them, to win a grace, they have ta'en a robe
That never to another hath been given:

Therefore let me entreat,

When ye shall sing the lay,

That ye will do it honour.

Lyels

7

Io mi son pargoletta bella e nuova

[Sets forth the spiritual beauties of Beatrice and belongs to the period covered by the second part of the Vita Nuova]

Ladies, behold a maiden fair and young;

To you I come, to show you in myself

The beauties of the place where I have been.

In heaven I dwelt, and thither shall return,
To impart delight to others with my beams :
And he who sees me and is not enamoured
Shall never have intelligence of love;
When Nature sought the grant of me from Him
Who willed that I should bear you company.

Each planet showers down upon mine eyes
Most bounteously its virtue and its light:
Beauties are mine the world has never seen,
For I obtained them in the realms above;
And ever must their nature rest unknown,
Unless to the intelligence of him

In whom Love dwells to give to others bliss

These words were written on the gentle brow
Of a fair angel who appeared to us;
Whence I, to save myself, gazed full on her,
And hazarded the losing of my life;
For so severe a wound I then received
From one whom I beheld within her eyes,
That ever since I weep, nor peace have known.
Lyell

8

Molti volendo dir che fosse Amore

[See Note to p. 87, l. 7]

Many who fain would tell us what is Love

Have lavished store of words, but still have failed To tell of him in terms approaching truth, And to define the nature of his worth. One hath described him as a mental flame, Imagination's offspring, born of Thought; Others have said he was Desire, the child Of Will, and born of Pleasure in the heart. But I would say that Love no substance hath, Nor is a thing corporeal having form; But rather is a passion in desiring; Pleasure from beauty springing, nature's gift; Such that the heart's wish every wish exceeds, And all-sufficient while that pleasure lasts.

9

Onae venite voi così pensose

[See Note to p. 97, l. 16]

Lyell

Whence come you, all of you so sorrowful?
An it may please you, speak for courtesy.
I fear for my dear lady's sake, lest she
Have made you to return thus fill'd with dule.

O gentle ladies, be not hard to school
In gentleness, but to some pause agree,
And something of my lady say to me,
For with a little my desire is full.
Howbeit it be a heavy thing to hear:
For love now utterly has thrust me forth,
With hand for ever lifted, striking fear.
See if I be not worn unto the earth:

Yea, and my spirit must fail from me here,

If, when you speak, your words are of no worth. Rossetti

10

Voi donne che pietoso atto mostrate
[See Note to p. 97, l. 16]

"Ye ladies, walking past me piteous-eyed,
Who is the lady that lies prostrate here?
Can this be even she my heart holds dear?
Nay, if it be so, speak, and nothing hide.
Her very aspect seems itself beside,

And all her features of such alter'd cheer
That to my thinking they do not appear
Hers who makes others seem beatified."
"If thou forget to know our lady thus,

Whom grief o'ercomes, we wonder in no wise,
For also the same thing befalleth us.

Yet if thou watch the movement of her eyes,
Of her thou shalt be straightway conscious,
O weep no more! thou art all wan with sighs."
Rossetti

II

Di aonne io vidi una gentile schiera

[See Note to p. 119, l. 20 sqq., etc.]

Last All Saint's holy-day, even now gone by,
I met a gathering of damozels;

She that came first, as one doth who excels,
Had Love with her, bearing her company:
A flame burn'd forward through her steadfast eye,
As when in living fire a spirit dwells:

So, gazing with the boldness which prevails
O'er doubt, I saw an angel visibly.

As she pass'd on, she bow'd her mild approof
And salutation to all men of worth,
Lifting the soul to solemn thoughts aloof.
In Heaven itself that lady had her birth,

I think, and is with us for our behoof:
Blessed are they who meet her on the earth.

Rossetti