Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/105

 SONNETS

��Henceforth thou art the Genius of the

shore, In thy large recompense, and shalt be

good To all that wander in that perilous flood.

Thus sang the uncouth Swain to the oaks

and rills,

While the still Morn went out with sandals grey:

��He touched the tender stops of various

quills,

With eager thought warbling his Doric lay : And now the sun had stretched out all the

hills, 190

And now was dropt into the western bay. At last he rose, and twitched his mantle

blue: To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures

��POEMS WRITTEN IN ITALY

��In the absence of evidence to the con- trary, we must assume that Milton wrote his six Italian poems in 1638-39, during his stay in Italy. Whether the lady whom they celebrate was a creature of flesh and blood or merely an abstraction of the south- ern type of beauty (sotta nova idea pelle- grina bellezza) has been a matter of dispute, though, it would seem, somewhat unneces- sarily. The first sonnet gives her dwelling- place as the " grassy vale of Reno;" and as the Reno flows near Bologna, that city is presumably meant. If Milton had been addressing an abstraction he would hardly have given it so definite a local habitation, or, even if he had done so, he would hardly have selected Bologna for the purpose. It was not until late in his Italian sojourn, after he had seen Florence, Rome, and Na- ples, and after the first keenness of im- pression had worn off, that he saw Bologna and its women. The conclusion seems in-

��escapable that the " donna leggiadra " of the sonnets was a Bolognese beauty, whom he encountered perhaps at Florence or Rome, and whose novel charms subdued his susceptible heart. The matter is after all of slight importance; for the poems show that the passion was a manageable one, of the right sort to be played with prettily in a foreign tongue, where necessa- rily the author's chief concern was to avoid the pitfalls of solecism. He did not suc- ceed altogether in avoiding them; but he did succeed in catching tolerably well the lighter amatory manner of the Italian son- netteers and cauzonists.

These poems have been several times translated, notably by Cowper, Langthorne, Masson, and Pattison. The present trans- lator follows Pattison's plan of rendering line for line, in an irregular metre, with- out rhyme.

��DONNA leggiadra, il cui bel nome onora L' erbosa val di Reno e il nobil varco, Bene e colui d' ogni valore scarco Qual tuo spirto gentil non innamora,

Che dolcemente mostrasi di fuora, De' sui atti soavi giammai parco, E i don', che son d' amor saette ed arco, Lk onde 1' alta tu virtu s' infiora.

Quando tu vaga parli, o lieta canti, Che mover possa duro alpestre legno, Guardi ciascim agli occhi ed agli orecchi

��L' entrata, chi di te si truova indegno; Grazia sola di su gli vaglia, innanti Che '1 disio amoroso al cuor s' invecchi.

TRANSLATION

LADY gay and gracious, whose fair name

honors

The grassy vale of Reno, and the noble pass, Surely that man is empty of all worth Whom thy gentle spirit doth not enamour, Thy spirit, that sweetly manifests itself, Never niggard of delightful actions,

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