LAUSO.
If I the good within my thought confessed,
What good I do possess would turn to ill.
The good I feel is not to be expressed.
Even from me let my desire conceal
Itself, and herein let my tongue be dumb,
And let its trophy be that it is still.
Let artifice stop here, nor art presume
To praise enow the pleasure and the balm
Which to a soul from Love's kind hand doth come.
Suffice to say that I in peaceful calm
Cross o'er the sea of Love, setting my trust
In noble triumph and victorious palm.
The cause unknown, let what the cause produced
Be known, for 'tis a good so measureless
That for the soul alone 'tis kept in trust.
Now I new being have, now life possess,
Now I in all the earth can win a name
For lofty glory and renowned success.
For the pure purpose and the loving flame,
Which is enclosed within my loving side,
Can unto loftiest Heaven exalt my fame.
In thee I hope, Silena, and confide
In thee, Silena, glory of my thought,
Pole-star that doth my roving fancy guide.