Sonnets
Glastonbury
Beacon of Christian truth! across the years
Thy flame undying glows in Faith's clear sight,
As once the Holy Grail's effulgence bright
Shone on the pure in heart, the Saints' compeers,
Who knew no more life's bitterness and fears
But dwelt thenceforth upon a nobler height,
Rapt in the radiance of Redemption's light
That still to the elect of God appears.
Each Christmas sees, before thy ancient shrine,
Its sacred thorn burst into glorious flower,
Of Heaven's immortal life a constant sign,
Shown to mankind in graciousness benign,
To make eternal with enlightening power
The revelation of a truth divine.
Galileo
The medieval pomp and civic pride
Which once made Pisa famous, long have lain
Forgotten with her pageants brief and vain
That flashed inconstant on the Arno's tide.
But, toned to softened hues, her walls abide,
Enclosing baptistery, tower, and fane
Wherein yet swings the lamp with brazen chain
That marked the pendulum's time-measured stride
And though the centuries, in lengthening roll,
Show ever fainter through perspective time
The fame depicted in the mouldering scroll,
They cannot dim the shining aureole
Around Galileo's name. Each hourly chime
Proclaims the law that swung the girandole.
Stratford-on-Avon
The hushed repose of some fair temple's shade
Falls on the pilgrim when he treads the ways
Where first the world to Shakespeare's childish gaze
Disclosed its wonders when his footsteps strayed;
Where, fired with love, he roamed the forest glade,
Storing clear memories for other days;
And where, at last, acclaimed and crowned with bays,
He dropped the lyre no other hand has played.
Fame watches o'er the deathless poet's sleep,
Her fanfares echoing still their wild applause,
While sweet Melpomene and Thalia weep,
For theirs no more the grandest flight that soars,
But lower planes where smaller spirits sweep,
Whose whispers sound like waves on distant shores.