Poems By Richard Chenevix Trench: New ed |
 | I. |
SONNET.
|
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| II. |
|
|
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
|
|
 | Poems |  |
204
SONNET.
[Were the sad tablets of our hearts alone]
Were the sad tablets of our hearts aloneA dreary blank, for Thee the task were slight,
To draw fair letters there and lines of light:
But while far other spectacle is shown
By them, with dismal traceries overdrawn,
Oh! task it seems, transcending highest might,
Ever again to make them clean and white,
Effacing the sad secrets they have known.
And then what heaven were better than a name,
If there must haunt and cling unto us there
Abiding memories of sin and shame?
Dread doubt! which finds no answer anywhere
Except in Him, who with Him power did bring
To make us feel our sin an alien thing.
| Poems | |