Sonnet 128

“Huma admiravel herva se conhece.”

There blooms a plant, whose gaze from hour to hour

Still to the sun with fond devotion turns,

Wakes when Creation hails his dawning power,

And most expands when most her idol burns:

But when he seeks the bosom of the deep,

His faithful plant’s reflected charms decay;

Then fade her flowers, her leaves discolour’d weep,

Still fondly pining for the vanish’d ray.

Thou whom I love, the day-star of my sight!

When thy dear presence wakes me to delight,

Joy in my soul unfolds her fairest flower:

But in thy heaven of smiles alone it blooms,

And, of their light deprived, in grief consumes,

Born but to live within thine eye-beam’s power.