Sonnets
Sonnet XVI
TO GUIDO ORLANDO
This most lief lady, where doth Love display him
So full of valour and so vestured bright,
Bids thy heart “Out!” He goes and none gainsay him;
And he takes life with her in long delight.
Her cloister’s guard is such that should you journey
To Ind you’d see each unicorn obey it;
Its armèd might against thee in sweet tourney
Cruel riposteth, thou canst not withstay it.
And she is surely in her valliancies
Such that she lacks not now worth’s anything,
And yet He made her for a mortal creature.
Then showed her forth, and here His foresight is,
And His providence, Ah, how fair a thing
If by her likeness thou mayst learn its nature!
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