 | A Sonnet Chronicle |  |
75
At the Unveiling of the Tennyson Statue, Lincoln.
July 16, 1905.
Here on the Lindum height that Caesar knew,
Where Conqueror William built his castle hold,
Where first Remigius shepherded his fold
And, round the vast cathedral towers, upgrew
A county's honour, stands to-day in view
The child who learned the Doric of the wold,
The man who roamed our shores of level gold,
And heard what music through the marshland blew.
Where Conqueror William built his castle hold,
Where first Remigius shepherded his fold
And, round the vast cathedral towers, upgrew
A county's honour, stands to-day in view
The child who learned the Doric of the wold,
The man who roamed our shores of level gold,
And heard what music through the marshland blew.
Colossal on the green the poet stands
Lost in high thought, the hound is at his side,
Looks up for guidance to his master's face
While he looks down for guidance to the grace
Of some wild flower that in his reverent hands
Proclaims how Life by Love is unified.
Lost in high thought, the hound is at his side,
Looks up for guidance to his master's face
While he looks down for guidance to the grace
Of some wild flower that in his reverent hands
Proclaims how Life by Love is unified.
The last time I saw G. F. Watts, who out of love and reverence for his old friend the poet had modelled the statue, he took me to see the work which he had just completed in the clay, and talked of the idea which he had tried to embody in it, of how love and reverence could bind all creation into one. “The dog,” said he, “loves his master, and looks up for guidance to the secret of the larger life. The man loves the flower, and looks down for guidance to the secret of a power that is beyond him. It is,” he added, “the old story—the lesson of the flower in the crannied wall repeated, but it needs repetition.”
| A Sonnet Chronicle | |