Sonnets and canzonets | ||
143
[XXV. Nobly censorious of our transient age]
Nobly censorious of our transient age,Hating oppressors in thy love of man,
Thou didst stride forward on the public stage
With the bold liberators to the van,
Scourging delinquents with a lofty rage.
Iconoclast, who 'gainst foul idols ran,
Tumbling false gods from their wide-worshipped shrine,
To throne therein the human and divine.
Charged was thy soul with vehement eloquence,
Strenuous with ample reason's manly art;
Thy prayers were fervent, void of all pretence,
Wrath yielded place to pity in thy heart;
Eagerly of all learning mad'st thou spoil,
Before thy lamp, extinguished, spent its oil.
Sonnets and canzonets | ||