No More Learning

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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1807.

When first saluted by the light of thine,
When my soul . . .

MS. letter to Sir George Beaumont. ]


[Variant 2:

1827.

Which . . . 1807. ]





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FROM THE SAME. TO THE SUPREME BEING


Translated 1804? --Published 1807


One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets. "--Ed.
III

The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed
If Thou the spirit give by which I pray:
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That [1] of its native self can nothing feed:
Of good and pious works thou art the seed, 5
That [2] quickens only where thou say'st it may.
Unless Thou shew to us thine own true way
No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.
Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind
By which such virtue may in me be bred 10
That in thy holy footsteps I may tread;
The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of thee,
And sound thy praises everlastingly.


* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1827.

Which . . . 1807. ]


[Variant 2:

1827.

Which . . . 1807. ]



The sonnet from which the above is translated, is not wholly by Michael
Angelo, the sculptor and painter, but is taken from patched-up versions
of his poem by his nephew of the same name. Michael Angelo only wrote
the first eight lines, and these have been garbled in his nephew's
edition.