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Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems

including a Reprint of Echoes from Theocritus: By Wilfred Austin Gill: With a Critical Estimate of the Sonnets by the late John Addington Symonds

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XL
VIRGIL

Not for the glittering splendour of thy verse,
O Seer-singer, do we count thee dear;
Not for the prowess of the Ænean spear,
The long brave battling with the Dardan curse;
But for thy human heart's sake we rehearse
Thy deep lines eloquent with hope and fear;
Thou too wert human; yea, to thee were near
The Fates that are about us and coerce.
Surely no softer subtler foot ere trod
Regions unlit save by the spirit's flame;
And through all shadows this high faith was thine:
Powerless is death to quench the spark divine;
Man's soul unfettered turneth whence it came;
God its fruition, for its seed was God.