Sonnets Round the Coast :: :: University of Virginia Library

Peace, Strongbow, peace! God rest thee, Walter Clare;
And thee whose sons did bear thee to thy grave!
The tended turf has muffled all the nave,
And tufts of green have carpeted the stair;
And if we hear not now the hum of prayer,—
Far oxen's mellow cry, the fall of wave,
The pattering rain, the moan of winds that rave,—
Such sounds, of your old lives will keep us 'ware!
No more De Bigod's deeds of battle flame
From storied panes along the chancel floor,
For God has filled the window to His Name
With cloud, and mountain, and with sunny moor;
And through the open quatrefoils, in spring,
Where sad monks chanted, joyous blackbirds sing.