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Michelangelo - Sonnet XVIII - With heart of sulphur and with flesh of tow
Identifier
024465
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Michelangelo – Sonnets [translated by Elizabeth Jennings]
Sonnet XVIII
With heart of sulphur and with flesh of tow,
With bone designed of dry and rotting wood,
With spirit lacking any guide to show
Which impulses are evil and which good,
With reason which displays itself so weak
Confronted with a world so full of snares,
It is no wonder that my flesh should break
When it first stumbles on such furious fires.
With glorious art - that gift received from heaven -
That conquers nature and in every way
Clings to all human longing and desire;
If such a gift I truly have been given
And yet, divided, torn, still burn and stray,
He is to blame who fashioned me for fire.