| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. Requesting to Be Judged by the Desire, and Not by the Desert | | By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) |
| | (Headed by the Author, “A Poet to a Painter”)
THAT which my fault has made me, O paint not: | |
| Paint me as that which I desire to be. | |
| The unaccomplished good that died in thought, | |
| Deep buried in my heart, seek out, set free; | |
| And all I might have been concede to me: | 5 |
| The veil my error and the world have wrought, | |
| Remove: the cloud disperse: erase the blot: | |
| Bid from my brow the temporal darkness flee. | |
| In that celestial and pure fount, whereof | |
| Some drops affused my childhood, bathe me wholly; | 10 |
| And shield me from my own deserts: lest they | |
| Who now but see me by the light of love, | |
| A sterner insight learn from thee one day; | |
| And love pass from them, like some outworn folly. | | | | |
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