Variation on a Theme by Dante

My memory is a little shaky here (the variations were all written in 1965), but I believe the theme here comes from an English translation of La Vita Nuova (The New Life), rather than from The Divine Comedy. In any event, the lady in question is Beatrice.

Variations on a theme by Dante

1965

So surely does my lady wend,

That ne’er a moment does she spend

Pausing on the upward path.

So fair and lovely is her face

That I must risk a harmless trace

Of praise in my little rhyme.

Her virtue is beyond disput...