RAPHAEL. <br /> <br />BLESS'D wert thou, whom Death, and not Decay, <br />Bore from the world on swift and shadowy wings, <br />Ere age or weakness dimm'd one brilliant ray <br />Of thy rapt spirit's high imaginings, <br />While yet thy heart was full of fervid love, <br />And thou wert haunted by resistless dreams <br />Of all in earth beneath, or Heaven above, <br />On which the light of beauty richest gleams,-- <br />Dead, but not deathlike, wert thou borne along; <br />Silent and cold, oh thou that didst combinc <br />Sculpture, and painting, and the gift of song; <br />While on thy brow, and on that work divine <br />Borne with thee, glow'd from thine Italian sky <br />A light whose glory spoke of inmmortality!<br /><br />Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-ii-17/
