Sonnets, and Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets (1590-1650)

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My song to salutation of your own;
More even than praise of one unseen of me
And loved--the starry spirit of Dobell,
To mine by light and music only known.

II

But more than this what moves me most of all
To leave not all unworded and unsped
The whole heart's greeting of my thanks unsaid
Scarce needs this sign, that from my tongue should fall
His name whom sorrow and reverent love recall,
The sign to friends on earth of that dear head
Alive, which now long since untimely dead
The wan grey waters covered for a pall.
Their trustless reaches dense with tangling stems
Took never life more taintless of rebuke,
More pure and perfect, more serene and kind,
Than when those clear eyes closed beneath the Thames,
And made the now more hallowed name of Luke
Memorial to us of morning left behind.

May 1881.

DYSTHANATOS

_Ad generem Cereris sine cæde et vulnere pauc