| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | O Fair Unsullied Rose | | By Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) |
| | Translated by James Glassford, of Dougalston
Leggiadra Rosa
O FAIR unsullied Rose, whose leaf was fed | |
| With sweetest dews, and drank the morning ray; | |
| Whose graceful bud now bending on the spray, | |
| Fanned by Aurora’s breath, puts on the red; | |
| That careful hand which plucks thee from thy bed | 5 |
| Removes thee only to a brighter day, | |
| Where stripped of thorn, and never to decay, | |
| Thy choicer beauties may unmingled spread. | |
| Thus art thou planted a perennial flower, | |
| Far from this fickle region full of gloom, | 10 |
| Which winds disturb, and frost and sweeping shower, | |
| A faithful Guardian tends thee now, by Whom | |
| Secured thou shalt combine, in peaceful bower, | |
| Immortal fragrance with immortal bloom. | | | | |
|
|
