| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Garden of Earthly Love | | By Francesco Redi (1626–1697) |
| | Translated by Edmund Gosse
OH! ye who follow Virtue, go not there! | |
| Those meadows are the flowery ways of Love, | |
| And he who there as Lord and King doth move | |
| Is ever on the watch to trap and snare | |
| The incautious hearts of all the young and fair, | 5 |
| And if those sunny perilous ways ye prove, | |
| Your soul will flutter like a cagëd dove; | |
| Oh! pause and taste not that perfumëd air! | |
| Those shy white-breasted girls who smile and stand | |
| With flower-bound hair, and singing, hand in hand, | 10 |
| Among the roses, will lay wait for you, | |
| And clip your wings, and never let you through, | |
| But shut your soul up in a thirsty land, | |
| And Love will come with them and mock you too. | | | | |
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