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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 128 by LUIS DE CAMOENS

First Line: THERE BLOOMS A PLANT, WHOSE GAZE, FROM HOUR.
Last Line: BORN BUT TO LIVE WITHIN THINE EYE-BEAM'S POWER.
Subject(s): PLANTS; TRANSIENCE;

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 discoloured ween,
Still fondly pining for the vanished ray.

Thou whom I love, the daystar 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.



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