1807.] * * * * * FROM THE SAME.

TO THE SUPREME BEING Translated 1804 ?--Published 1807 One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-- Ed.
III The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed If Thou the spirit give by which I pray: My unassisted heart is barren clay, That [1] of its native self can nothing feed: Of good and pious works thou art the seed, 5 That [2] quickens only where thou say'st it may.
Unless Thou shew to us thine own true way No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.
Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind By which such virtue may in me be bred 10 That in thy holy footsteps I may tread; The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind, That I may have the power to sing of thee, And sound thy praises everlastingly.
* * * * * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: 1827.
Which ...

1807.] [Variant 2: 1827.
Which ...

1807.] The sonnet from which the above is translated, is not wholly by Michael Angelo, the sculptor and painter, but is taken from patched-up versions of his poem by his nephew of the same name.

Michael Angelo only wrote the first eight lines, and these have been garbled in his nephew's edition.