Part I

. Sonnet II. (p. 5) and note [14].--ED.

XXII

THE SAME SUBJECT

The lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek Through saintly habit than from effort due To unrelenting mandates that pursue With equal wrath the steps of strong and weak) Goes forth--unveiling timidly a cheek[169] 5 Suffused with blushes of celestial hue, While through the Convent's[170] gate to open view Softly she glides, another home to seek. Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine, An Apparition more divinely bright! 10 Not more attractive to the dazzled sight Those watery glories, on the stormy brine Poured forth, while summer suns at distance shine, And the green vales lie hushed in sober light!

FOOTNOTES:

[169] 1837.

... her cheek 1822.

[170] 1837.

... Convent ... 1822.

XXIII

CONTINUED

Yet many a Novice of the cloistral shade, And many chained by vows, with eager glee[171] The warrant hail, exulting to be free; Like ships before whose keels, full long embayed In polar ice, propitious winds have made 5 Unlooked-for outlet to an open sea, Their liquid world, for bold discovery, In all her quarters temptingly displayed! Hope guides the young; but when the old must pass The threshold, whither shall they turn to find 10 The hospitality--the alms (alas! Alms may be needed) which that House bestowed? Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind To keep this new and questionable road?

FOOTNOTES:

[171] 1840.

Yet some, Noviciates of the cloistral shade, Or chained by vows, with undissembled glee 1822.

XXIV

SAINTS

Ye, too, must fly before a chasing hand, Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned! Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned, Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land: Her adoration was not your demand, 5 The fond heart proffered it--the servile heart; And therefore are ye summoned to depart, Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand[172] The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret[173] Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew: 10 And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen[174] Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene, Who in the penitential desert met Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew!

FOOTNOTES:

[172] St. George, patron Saint of England, supposed to have suffered A.D. 284. The Greek Church honours him as "the great martyr."--ED.

[173] St. Margaret, supposed to have suffered martyrdom at Antioch, A.D. 275.--ED.

[174] St. Cecilia, patron Saint of Music, has been enrolled as a martyr by the Latin Church from the fifth century.--ED.

XXV

THE VIRGIN[175]

Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost With the least shade of thought to sin allied; Woman! above all women glorified, Our tainted nature's solitary boast; Purer than foam on central ocean tost; 5 Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast; Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend, 10 As to a visible Power, in which did blend All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee Of mother's love with maiden purity, Of high with low, celestial with terrene![176]

FOOTNOTES:

[175] Compare the _Stanzas suggested in a Steam-boat off Saint Bees' Head_, (l. 114); also the following sonnet by the late John Nichol, Professor of English Literature in the University of Glasgow. (See _The Death of Themistocles, and other Poems_, p. 189.)

AVE MARIA

Ave Maria! on a thousand thrones Raised by the weary hearts that beat to thee, As 'neath the softer light the throbbing sea, Thy name a spell of peace, in lingering tones Is whispered through the world: thy truth condones The feebler faith of worshippers that flee, Lost in the sovereign awe, to bend the knee By pictured holiness or breathing stones. Mother of Christ! whom ages old adorn, And hundred climes, by gentle thought and deed, Forgive the sacrilege, the brandished scorn Of the grim guardians of a narrow creed, Who fence their folds from Love's serener law, And "grate on scrannel pipes of wretched straw."--ED.

[176] This sonnet was published in _Time's Telescope_, July 2, 1823, p. 136.--ED.

XXVI

APOLOGY

Not utterly unworthy to endure Was the supremacy of crafty Rome;[177] Age after age to the arch of Christendom Aërial keystone haughtily secure; Supremacy from Heaven transmitted pure, 5 As many hold; and, therefore, to the tomb Pass, some through fire--and by the scaffold some-- Like saintly Fisher,[178] and unbending More.[179] "Lightly for both the bosom's lord did sit Upon his throne;"[180] unsoftened, undismayed 10 By aught that mingled with the tragic scene Of pity or fear; and More's gay genius played With the inoffensive sword of native wit, Than the bare axe more luminous and keen.

FOOTNOTES:

[177] "To the second part of the same series" (the "Ecclesiastical Sonnets") "I have added two, in order to do more justice to the Papal Church for the services which she did actually render to Christianity and Humanity in the Middle Ages."--W. W. (in a letter to Professor Reed, Sept. 4, 1842).--ED.

[178] John Fisher, born in 1469, became Bishop of Rochester in 1504, was one of the first in England to write against Luther, opposed the divorce of Henry VIII., was sent to the Tower in 1534, and his see declared void, was made a Cardinal by the Pope while in prison, and beheaded on Tower Hill, 1535.--ED.

[179] Sir Thomas More, the author of _Utopia_, born in 1478, was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523, and succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor in 1529. Disapproving of the king's divorce, he resigned office, was committed to the Tower for refusing to take the oath of supremacy, found guilty of treason, and beheaded in 1535.--ED.

[180] See _Romeo and Juliet_, act V. scene i. l. 3--

My bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne.--ED.

XXVII

IMAGINATIVE REGRETS

Deep is the lamentation! Not alone From Sages justly honoured by mankind; But from the ghostly tenants of the wind, Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan Issues for that dominion overthrown: 5 Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind As his own worshippers: and Nile, reclined Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan Renews.[181] Through every forest, cave, and den, Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow past-- Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophet's native Waste,[182] 11 Where once his airy helpers[183] schemed and planned 'Mid spectral[184] lakes bemocking thirsty men,[185] And stalking pillars built of fiery sand.[186]

FOOTNOTES:

[181] Compare the echo of the Lady's voice in the lines _To Joanna_, in the "Poems on the Naming of Places" (vol. ii. p. 157).--ED.

[182] The desert around Mecca.--ED.

[183] Mahomet affirmed that he had constant visits from angels; and that the angel Gabriel dictated to him the Koran.--ED.

[184] 1837.

'Mid phantom ... 1822.

[185] The mirage.--ED.

[186] Pillars of sand raised by whirlwinds in the desert, which correspond to waterspouts at sea.--ED.

XXVIII

REFLECTIONS

Grant, that by this unsparing hurricane Green leaves with yellow mixed are torn away, And goodly fruitage with the mother spray; 'Twere madness--wished we, therefore, to detain, With hands stretched forth in[187] mollified disdain, 5 The "trumpery" that ascends in bare display-- Bulls, pardons, relics, cowls black, white, and grey--[188] Upwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain Fast bound for Limbo Lake.[189] And yet not choice But habit rules the unreflecting herd, 10 And airy bonds are hardest to disown; Hence, with the spiritual sovereignty transferred Unto itself, the Crown assumes a voice Of reckless mastery, hitherto unknown.

FOOTNOTES:

[187] 1827.

With farewell sighs of 1822.

[188] See _Paradise Lost_,