My Divine Muse

What aroused my divine muse? È il tuo dolce viso? [Is it your sweet face?]
To hymn verses for Laura in Sainte-Claire of Avignon,
My Beatrice's guide from Inferno to Paradiso,
Inspiring the poetry of yearning for my Maud Gonne.

Thy reticent eyes escaped beholding the poor poet,
Thou hast so subtly veiled the grace to still my goddess breath,
Thine, a phoenix pyre for one, to me thou shalt not show it,
For thee, my heart on funeral pyre meets Heracles' death.

Thy soft, bright skin finds no echo in the dull, porous moon,
Thy darksome eyes alienate the world's many-hued designs,
Thy burnette curls bear no kinship to blue waves in monsoon,
Yet still I wonder why my soul is haunted by thy signs.

No earthly shall ever grasp thy puissant afflatus,
For thou alone dost grant the touch of heaven's hiatus.

5/07/2025