The Poetry Corner

Love's Justification. Second Reading.

By Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Ben pu talor col casto. It must be right sometimes to entertain Chaste love with hope not over-credulous; Since if all human loves were impious, Unto what end did God the world ordain? If I love thee and bend beneath thy reign, 'Tis for the sake of beauty glorious Which in thine eyes divine is stored for us, And drives all evil thought from its domain. That is not love whose tyranny we own In loveliness that every moment dies; Which, like the face it worships, fades away: True love is that which the pure heart hath known, Which alters not with time or death's decay, Yielding on earth earnest of Paradise.