262 and 263

A response to Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti LXXV: One Day I Wrote her Name

Say, Spenser, did you “eternize” your love?

Was what you wrote in sand turned into glass?

Have you now got her in your arms above,

or were your words but sweetly sounding brass?

But I have found a salve to meet your need.

The Maker of that ocean you despised

has said what would be partial to your greed

if, only He, your ardor realized.

His oceans will, all mortal loves, erase,

but not if married to His holy will.

See not the heavens in the one you praise,

but let that cup, His passion, overfill.

The “Eterizing” One will keep your heart

if it is bent to hers and His own art.

~~~

I work a shop of items of all kinds

and use a book that tells what we supply,

but I have trouble reading both the minds

of he who wrote the book, and those who buy.

The Author’s will is something I don’t see,

and most the times I read the orders wrong;

but when the Owner comes, he works with me,

and fixes it, and tells me to go on.

I could have thrown the towel long ago,

and feared the Author and the Owner too;

but they have never said I shouldn’t show,

despite the tawdry work I often do.

Yet, I can see his object more and more

each time he comes to make my efforts sure.