 | Poems and Sonnets |  |
71
MISS THACKERAY'S “REINE.”
I
Thank Heaven! that there still are left a fewRight noble women who know how to feel—
If there are none in fact, why let them steal
Possession of our hearts, the heroic crew
Who in the fictions which alone are true
Alone give unto mankind cause to kneel
In adoration—let the novelists heal
The age, providing us with Passion new;
If women whom we daily see around
Are white and feeble, most unreal dames,
For God's sake let us bury knightly aims
Along with knightly stories underground,
And when they seek us, let us still be found
Insensible to any but the claims
72
II
Of storied damsels—such as noble ReineWho set my heart a-scribbling in this fashion
I wonder whether such a wealth of passion,
Save only in recesses of the brain
Of genius, on earth doth yet remain,
Whether a woman fit to tie the shoe
Of Reine of Petitport is ever true,
Or only fancied in the painted pane
Of High Imagination; but since one,
One worthy woman, only think my brothers,
Has struggled into life, we'll hope for others,
Yea, for a reign of Goddesshood begun,
That the Romances that have such a run
May unto passionate romance be mothers!
| Poems and Sonnets | |