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Michelangelo - Sonnet LVI - I know not whence it came
Identifier
024478
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Michelangelo – Sonnets [translated by Elizabeth Jennings]
Sonnet LVI
I know not whence it came and yet it surely
Sprang from that deathless soul which in your breast
Remains, yet seeks the universe entirely,
Healing the mind, making the whole earth blest.
This alone draws me, and with this alone
I fall in love, not with the outward grace
Of gentle features. Love will not grow less
When such a lasting good it fixes on.
If such a form should find new beauties growing
Upon itself as part of its own life,
Then from the sheath I can detect the knife.
Only in this way is God truly showing
His love, for heaven indeed can rival nature,
Letting a chaste love frame a lovelier creature.