Sonnets, and Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets (1590-1650) | Page 7

length of years and changes to divide,
But union only of trust and
loving heart
And perfect faith in freedom strong to abide
And spirit
at one with spirit on either side.
April 3, 1882.
SIR WILLIAM GOMM
I

At threescore years and five aroused anew
To rule in India, forth a
soldier went
On whose bright-fronted youth fierce war had spent
Its
iron stress of storm, till glory grew
Full as the red sun waned on
Waterloo.
Landing, he met the word from England sent
Which bade
him yield up rule: and he, content,
Resigned it, as a mightier warrior's
due;
And wrote as one rejoicing to record
That "from the first" his
royal heart was lord
Of its own pride or pain; that thought was none

Therein save this, that in her perilous strait
England, whose womb
brings forth her sons so great,
Should choose to serve her first her
mightiest son.
II
Glory beyond all flight of warlike fame
Go with the warrior's
memory who preferred
To praise of men whereby men's hearts are
stirred,
And acclamation of his own proud name
With blare of
trumpet-blasts and sound and flame
Of pageant honour, and the
titular word
That only wins men worship of the herd,
His country's
sovereign good; who overcame
Pride, wrath, and hope of all high
chance on earth,
For this land's love that gave his great heart birth.

O nursling of the sea-winds and the sea,
Immortal England, goddess
ocean-born,
What shall thy children fear, what strengths not scorn,

While children of such mould are born to thee?
SONNETS
ON
ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS
(1590-1650)
I
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

Crowned, girdled, garbed and shod with light and fire,
Son first-born
of the morning, sovereign star!
Soul nearest ours of all, that wert
most far,
Most far off in the abysm of time, thy lyre
Hung highest
above the dawn-enkindled quire
Where all ye sang together, all that
are,
And all the starry songs behind thy car
Rang sequence, all our
souls acclaim thee sire.
"If all the pens that ever poets held
Had fed the feeling of their
masters' thoughts,"
And as with rush of hurtling chariots
The flight
of all their spirits were impelled
Toward one great end, thy glory--nay,
not then,
Not yet might'st thou be praised enough of men.
II
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Not if men's tongues and angels' all in one
Spake, might the word be
said that might speak Thee.
Streams, winds, woods, flowers, fields,
mountains, yea, the sea, What power is in them all to praise the sun?

His praise is this,--he can be praised of none.
Man, woman, child,
praise God for him; but he
Exults not to be worshipped, but to be.

He is; and, being, beholds his work well done.
All joy, all glory, all
sorrow, all strength, all mirth,
Are his: without him, day were night
on earth.
Time knows not his from time's own period.
All lutes, all
harps, all viols, all flutes, all lyres,
Fall dumb before him ere one
string suspires.
All stars are angels; but the sun is God.
III
BEN JONSON
Broad-based, broad-fronted, bounteous, multiform,
With many a
valley impleached with ivy and vine,
Wherein the springs of all the
streams run wine,
And many a crag full-faced against the storm,

The mountain where thy Muse's feet made warm
Those lawns that

revelled with her dance divine
Shines yet with fire as it was wont to
shine
From tossing torches round the dance aswarm.
Nor less, high-stationed on the grey grave heights,
High-thoughted
seers with heaven's heart-kindling lights
Hold converse: and the herd
of meaner things
Knows or by fiery scourge or fiery shaft
When
wrath on thy broad brows has risen, and laughed
Darkening thy soul
with shadow of thunderous wings.
IV
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER
An hour ere sudden sunset fired the west,
Arose two stars upon the
pale deep east.
The hall of heaven was clear for night's high feast,

Yet was not yet day's fiery heart at rest.
Love leapt up from his
mother's burning breast
To see those warm twin lights, as day
decreased,
Wax wider, till when all the sun had ceased
As suns they
shone from evening's kindled crest.
Across them and between, a
quickening fire,
Flamed Venus, laughing with appeased desire.

Their dawn, scarce lovelier for the gleam of tears,
Filled half the
hollow shell 'twixt heaven and earth
With sound like moonlight,
mingling moan and mirth,
Which rings and glitters down the darkling
years.
V
PHILIP MASSINGER
Clouds here and there arisen an hour past noon
Chequered our
English heaven with lengthening bars
And shadow and sound of
wheel-winged thunder-cars
Assembling strength to put forth tempest
soon,
When the clear still warm concord of thy tune
Rose under
skies unscared by reddening Mars
Yet, like a sound of silver speech
of stars,
With full mild flame as of the mellowing moon.
Grave and

great-hearted Massinger, thy face
High melancholy lights with loftier
grace
Than gilds the brows of revel: sad and wise,
The spirit of
thought that moved thy deeper song,
Sorrow serene in soft calm scorn
of wrong,
Speaks patience yet from thy majestic eyes.
VI
JOHN FORD
Hew hard the marble from the mountain's heart
Where hardest night
holds fast in iron gloom
Gems brighter than an April dawn in bloom,

That his Memnonian likeness thence may start
Revealed, whose
hand