| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Creation of My Lady | | By Francesco Redi (1626–1697) |
| | Translated by Edmund Gosse
THAT Love,—whose power and sovranty we own, | |
| And who before all time was did beget | |
| The sun and moon and splendid stars, and set | |
| All lovely things to speak of Him alone,— | |
| Late looking earthward from his supreme throne | 5 |
| Saw that,—although the beauty lingered yet,— | |
| The froward heart of man did quite forget | |
| That all this beauty from His presence shone; | |
| Wherefore, desiring to reclaim his eyes | |
| To heaven by some unequalled new delight, | 10 |
| He gave the world a treasure from the skies, | |
| My Lady’s sacred beauty, pure and bright, | |
| Whose body is a robe of woven light, | |
| And fashioned in the looms of Paradise. | | | | |
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