 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
AD DANTEM.
TO thee, my master, thee, my shining one,Whose solitary face, immovable,
Burning athwart the midmost glooms of Hell,
Calls up stern shadows of the things undone,—
To thee, immortal, shining like the sun
In the blue heart of Heaven's clearest bell,
Circled with radiances ineffable,—
These pale sad flowers I bring,—how hardly won
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How hardly and how wearily God knows!
These at thy feet I lay, whose hues confess
Thy mighty shade, so haply they may shine
With some pale reflex of that light divine
Which ripples round thine own supernal rose.
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |