Sonnets

What though our dream is broken? Yet again
Like a familiar angel it shall bear
Consoling treasures for these days of pain,
Such as they only who have grieved can share;
As unhived nectar for the bee to sip,
Lurks in each flower-ce!l which the spring-time brings,
As music rests upon the quiet lip,
And power to soar yet lives in folded wings —
So let the love on which your spirits glide
Flow deep and strong beneath its bridge of sighs,
No shadow resting on the latent tide
Whose heavenward current baffles human eyes,
Until we stand upon the holy shore,
And realms it prophesied at length explore!
IT. COURAGE AND PATIENCE.
Courage and patience! elements whereby
My soul shall yet her citadel maintain,
Baffled, perplex'd, and struggling oft to fly,
Far, far above this realm of wasting pain —
Come with your still and banded vigour now,
Fill my sad breast with energy divine,
Stamp a firm thought upon my aching brow,
Make my impulsive visions wholly thine!
Freeze my pent tears, chill all my tender dreams,
Brace my weak heart in panoply sublime,
Till dwelling only on thy martyr themes,
And turning from the richest lures of time,
Love, like an iceberg of the polar deep,
In adamantine rest is laid asleep!
III. All HEARTS ARE WOT DISLOYAL.
All hearts are not disloyal: let thy trust
Be deep, and clear, and all-confiding still,
For though Love's fruit turn on the lips to dustj
She ne'er betrays her child to lasting ill:
Through leagues of desert must the pilgrim go
Ere on his gaze the holy turrets rise;
Through the long, sultry day the stream must flow
Ere it can mirror twilight's purple skies.
Fall back unscathed from contact with the vain,
Keep thy robes white, thy spirit bold and free,
And calmly launch Affection's bark again,
Hopeful of golden spoils reserved for thee!
Though lone the way as that already trod,
Cling to thine own integrity and God!
IV. LIKE A FAIR SEA.
Like the fair sea that laves Italia's strand,
Affection's flood is tideless in my breast;
No-ebb withdraws it from the chosen land,
Haven'd too richly for enamour'd quest:
Thus am I faithful to the vanish'd grace
Embodied once in thy sweet form and name,
And though love's charm no more illumes thy face,
In Memory's realm her olden pledge I claim.
It is not constancy to haunt a shrine
From which devotion's lingering spark has fled;
Insensate homage only wreaths can twine
Around the pulseless temples of the dead:
Thou from thy better self hast madly flown,
While to that self allegiance still I own.
V. FREEDOM.
Freedom! beneath thy banner I was born —
Oh let me share thy full and perfect life!
Teach me opinion's slavery to scorn,
And to be free from passion's bitter strife;
Free of the world, a self-dependent soul
Nourish'd by lofty aims and genial truth,
And made more free by Love's serene control,
The spell of beauty and the hopes of youth.
The liberty of Nature let me know,
Caught from her mountains, groves, and crystal streams,
Her starry host, and sunset's purple glow,
That woo the spirit with celestial dreams,
On Fancy's wing exultingly to soar,
Till life's harsh fetters clog the heart no more!
VI. DESOLATION.
Think ye the desolate must live apart,
By solemn vows to convent-walls confined?
Ah! no; with men may dwell the cloister'd heart,
And in a crowd the isolated mind;
Tearless behind the prison-bars of fate,
The world sees not how sorrowful they stand,
Gazing so fondly through the iron grate,
Upon the promised, yet forbidden land;
Patience, the shrine to which their bleeding feet,
Day after day, in voiceless penance turn;
Silence, the holy cell and calm retreat
In which unseen their meek devotions burn;
Life is to them a vigil that none share,
Their hopes a sacrifice, their love a prayer.