Silence stiller than the shore
Swept by Charon’s stealthy oar,
Ocean more divinely free
Than Pacific’s boundless sea,—
Ye who love have learned it true.
—Dear, how long ago we knew!
Of this group, however, it is in the sonnet, “If Love Were Jester at the Court of Death,” that Mr. Knowles’ most genuine inspiration has visited him.
The conception of the sonnet is unique, and its opening line of epigrammatic force and suggestiveness:
If Love were jester at the court of Death,
And Death the king of all, still would I pray,