 | Imaginary Sonnets |  |
11
DONNA BELLA TO DANTE.
(1265.)
The day I gave thee birth I had a dream:
I thought an eagle held me high above
The countless souls that Mercy thinks not of,
As in the bottomless abyss they teem.
I thought an eagle held me high above
The countless souls that Mercy thinks not of,
As in the bottomless abyss they teem.
I saw them vaguely by a lurid gleam:
A very sea of shapes, that God's breath drove
Into great waves of pain, and whence there strove
A roar that heightened to a tempest's scream.
A very sea of shapes, that God's breath drove
Into great waves of pain, and whence there strove
A roar that heightened to a tempest's scream.
Then upward through the rainbow to the skies
My eagle soared with me still in his hold,
To where God's very glory blinds the eyes,
My eagle soared with me still in his hold,
To where God's very glory blinds the eyes,
Alighting on the battlements of gold,
Whence the ineffable hosannas rise;
I heard them still when thou wert one hour old.
Whence the ineffable hosannas rise;
I heard them still when thou wert one hour old.
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