To Laura In Death. Sonnet XXII.

Come va 'l mondo! or mi diletta e piace.     HE BLESSES LAURA FOR HER VIRTUE.         How goes the world! now please me and delight     What most displeased me: now I see and feel     My trials were vouchsafed me for my weal,     That peace eternal should brief war requite.     O hopes and wishes, ever fond and slight,     In lovers most, which oftener harm than heal!     Worse had she yielded to my warm appeal     Whom Heaven has welcomed from the grave's dark night.     But blind love and my dull mind so misled,     I sought to trespass even by main force     Where to have won my precious soul were dead.     Blessd be she who shaped mine erring course     To better port, by turns who curb'd and lured     My bold and passionate will where safety was secured.     MACGREGOR.         Alas! this changing world! my present joy     Was once my grief's dark source, and now I feel     My sufferings pass'd were but my soul to heal     Its fearful warfare--peace's soft decoy.     Poor human wishes! Hope, thou fragile toy     To lovers oft! my woe had met its seal,     Had she but hearken'd to my love's appeal,     Who, throned in heaven, hath fled this world's alloy.     My blinded love, and yet more stubborn mind,     Resistless urged me to my bosom's shame,     And where my soul's destruction I had met:     But blessd she who bade life's current find     A holier course, who still'd my spirit's flame     With gentle hope that soul might triumph yet.     WOLLASTON.