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Love's crucifix

THE WATCHER

Agnes Tobin translation

I
I

If I could tell how tender are the sighs

Of that most lovely Lady who was mine

And now is set in heaven for a sign,

And yet seems here, lives, feels, walks, loves and cries,

A giant in your breast desire would rise!

She comes, by some swift sympathy divine,

Whenever on my lonely road I pine,

Faint or turn back, pause where the wrong road lies:

“Straight up, towards Heaven, is the way to go;”

Her soft phrase, low and wistful, ends in prayer,

In thoughts celestial that are all her own:

And then I vow the mighty things I dare,

Strong in the sweetness which doth pierce me so,

Yea, would have power to draw tears from a stone.

Illustration from Love's crucifix: nine sonnets and a canzone
Illustration from Love's crucifix: nine sonnets and a canzone
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