Venice masks

Saturday 13 July 2019

Sonnet XVI. Love and Art - Michelangelo Buonarroti

As pen and ink alike serve him who .sings
      In high or low or intermediate style;
      As the same stone hath shapes both rich and vile
      To match the fancies that each master brings;
So, my loved lord, within thy bosom springs
      Pride mixed with meekness and kind thoughts that smile:
      Whence I draw nought, my sad self to beguile,
      But what my face shows — dark imaginings.
He who for seed sows sorrow, tears, and sighs,
      (The dews that fall from heaven, though pure and clear,
      From different germs take divers qualities)
Must needs reap grief and garner weeping eyes;
      And he who looks on beauty with sad cheer,
      Gains doubtful hope and certain miseries.

Michelangelo Buonarroti - (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) (1475 - 1564) Italy
Translated by John Addington Symonds
Source: The sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti, John Addington Symonds, T. B. Mosher, 1901

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