SONNET.
[He bade, as he was passing to his rest]
‘THE LATE DEAN OF WESTMINSTER, DEAN STANLEY, DESIRED THAT
HIS FUNERAL SERMON MIGHT BE PREACHED BY HIS DROTHER-IN-LAW
BECAUSE HE HAD KNOWN HIM THE LONGEST.’
He bade, as he was passing to his rest,
And mused on some who might hereafter yearn
More of the fashion of his life to learn,
He bade that this by one might be expressed
Who knew him longest, and who knew him best;
And so, committing to skilled hands and true
The holding that life up in open view
From night to light, from death to life he prest.
O happy who in face of friend and foe
Dare, humbly bold, to challenge the dead years
All which they keep most hidden to reveal;
Who with the Christ depositing their fears,
Bid those who them did most entirely know
To set upon their lives Truth's final seal.
