Sonnet CIII. I slept, when (underneath a laurel shade

Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609)

I SLEPT, when (underneath a laurel shade,

My face upreared aloft unto the heaven)

Methought I heard this spoken in a sweaven,

“Nature, on earth, Love’s miracle hath made!”

With this, methought, upon a bank was laid

An earthly body which was framed in heaven,

To whom, such graces (by the Graces given)

Sweet music in their several organs played.

In chief, the silent music of her eye

Softly recorded, with heaven’s harmony,

Drew down URANIA from celestial sphere;

Who mazed, at mazy turning of her ey’n,

(To make Divine perfection) glazed there

Those eyes, with clearest substance crystalline.