| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Apparition | | By Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585) |
| | Translated by Thomas Ashe
I SHALL go wander dreaming, many a day, | |
| In this dear mead, wherein my love I met, | |
| While fear and hope my prison’d fancy fret, | |
| Through her, whose eyes my will and wish obey: | |
| What silken threads of shining tresses lay | 5 |
| On her white neck I never can forget; | |
| The hues of rose and lilies haunt me yet, | |
| With such soft changes on her cheek a-play. | |
| She, I beheld, of any earthly dame | |
| Had not, good sooth, the forehead or the eyes: | 10 |
| It was no mortal down my meadow came; | |
| An angel was this damsel, it is plain, | |
| My heart to snare, new-lighted from the skies: | |
| No wonder was it I was captive ta’en. | | | | |
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