 | The Burdens of Belief and Other Poems |  |
115
TO THE SONNET
Avon's great Prophet has revealed thy powerTo twine all tendrils of the human heart,
And hold its sweetness through melodious art
Within the leafage of thy slender bower.
Green Rydal's Bard recounts thy glorious part
In Poet's song; recalls the tender voice
That took thee with a long and loving choice
To tell their sorrows; and indeed we start
To hear the roll-call of the names that lie
With thee,—since thou wert born in Italy:—
Immortal names; and as we hear the calls
They sound to us from out thy narrow walls,
We bend our ears, and almost seem to see
The mighty Dead who loved to speak in thee.
London: May 21, 1892
| The Burdens of Belief and Other Poems | |