Love's Perfect Power

Sun of my earthly worship, I declare
She equals him in Heaven! He with his eye
Makes glad, makes warm, makes light the spacious sky;
She gladdens earth with beauty yet more rare.

Nature and art, earth, water, fire, and air,
The stars, the Graces, and the Gods on high
Combine in rivalry to beautify
My Lady, and to make her wondrous fair.

Thrice happy were I, had not Fate's disdain
Walled in with adamantine magnet-stone
So chaste a heart behind so fair a face!

And happiest, had I not filled every vein
With fire and ice — because my heart is gone
And love beats, burns, and freezes in its place.