Sonnets written chiefly during a tour through Holland, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Hungary. By Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley |
 |
SONNET.
|
 | Sonnets |  |
64
SONNET.
INEZ TO MANUEL.
How could I leave that spot, so soon to beBless'd with thy radiant presence? 'twas a pang
Unutterable; for I would fondly hang
For years upon thy foot-print lovingly—
Thy foot-print in the dust; and I could flee
With hateful courage (while my armed Soul sang
Its proud, bold pæan!)—from my bliss! I rang
Mine own knell sternly, and did bend my knee
At the Altar of dark Sacrifice, which none
But I had built!—Oh, courage harsh and vain!—
O'er whose cold triumph I must make my moan;
A triumph but of bitterness and pain—
Ah! that it had been less! that it had flown—
And left me like a slave that links, loves, clasps his chain!
Steamer, near the Dardanelles.
| Sonnets | |