My Sonnets [by W. C. Bennett] |
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THE EMIGRATION OF THREE THOUSAND PURITANS FROM
NORWICH TO ESCAPE THE PERSECUTION OF LAUD. |
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 | My Sonnets |  |
13
THE EMIGRATION OF THREE THOUSAND PURITANS FROM NORWICH TO ESCAPE THE PERSECUTION OF LAUD.
Why is the sound of sighs and mourning heardIn thee, fair Norwich? Why doth yonder crowd,
With slow, sad, lingering footsteps, bid, aloud,
Thy streets give back their sorrow? Not a word
Comes from yon weeping mother, yet is stirred,
Even to its very depths, her soul. Down bowed,
With tears, she leaves her infants' birthplace: proud
Is his stern eye on whom she leans. They gird
Themselves to quit the homes they love so well;
For faith, their little ones, with tottering feet,
Go forth. From where their fathers loved to dwell,
Their boyhood's haunts, and each familiar street,
Go forth the staff-supported steps of age,
To serve their God in peace,—to 'scape the bigot's rage
November 27th, 1842.
| My Sonnets | |