SONNETS WRITTEN AT OXFORD NINE SONNETS WRITTEN AT OXFORD 5NINKS SONETS OXFORD CHRISTMAS MDCCCXCY NINE SONNETS WRITTEN AT OXFORD^ I: THETQW-I>ATH U RRO W to f urifb w", oar to oar succfedds 9% '- length awa^'mbre brigHt more exquisite & The sister shells that hither, thither flitg* Strew the long stream like dropping maple- seeds * A comrade on the marge now lags, now leads gf* Who with short calls his pace doth intermit jj^ An angry Pan, afoot; but if he sitj^ Au- spicious Pan among the river reeds 9* EST of the glowing hay- ricks,(tawny-blackjifc Where waters by their warm escarp- ments run,)gf* Two lovers, slowly crossed from Kennington^ Print in the early dew a married track ^ And drain the aroma'd eve, and spend the Ere, in laborious health, the crews come backg II: THE OLD DIAL OF CORPUS JARDEN of hours and jages, here I dwell ]Who saw young Keble Ipass, with sighing shook Fpr good unborn; and, ytbwards a willow nook, Pole, princely in the senate and the cell; And doubting the near boom of Osney bell, Turning on me that sweetly subtile look, Erasmus, in his breast an Attic book : Peacemakers all, their dreams to ashes fell. AUGHT steadfast may I image nor ittain Save steadfast labour; futile must I grope After my god, like him inconstant bright. But sun and shade shall unto you remain Alternately a vision and a hope, Men, spirits ! of Emmanuel your Light. Ill: AD ANTIQUARIUM QUID AM Y gentle Aubrey* ty#io in everything, ,"' Hadst of tfyy dty'slybuth so lovely lust, Yet never lineal to her towers august Thy spirit could fix, or perfectly upbring, Sleep, sleep. I ope, not unremembering, Thy comely manuscript, and, interthrust, Find delicate hueless leaves more sad than dust, Three centuries unkissed of any spring. ILLING a homesick page beneath a ime, y mood beheld, as mine thy debtor's now, The endless terraces of ended Time, Vague in green twilight. Goodly was re- lease Into that past where these poor leaves and thou Do freshen in the air of eldest peace* IV: ON THE PRE-REFORMATION CHURCHES ABOUT OXFORD IMPERIAL Iffley, Cumnor boweredin green, AneTTfemplar Sandford in the boatman's call, And sweet-belled Appleton, and Marcham wall That doth upon adoring ivies lean ; Meek Binsey ; Dorchester where streams convene Bidding on graves her solemn shadow fall ; Clear Cassington that soars perpetual ; Holton and Hampton, and ye towers between: j|F one of all in your sad courts that :ome, jBelo v6d and disparted ! be your own, Kin to the souls ye had, while time en- dures, Known to each disinherited dumb stone Home in the quarries of old Christendom, Ah, mark him : he will lay his cheek to yours. V: ON THE SAME (CONTINUED) "^ ~~jS this the end? Is this the pil- grim's day For dread, for dereliction, and for tears? Rather, from grass and air and many spheres, In prophecy his spirit sinks away ; And under English eaves, more still than they, Far-off, incoming, wonderful, he hears The long-arrested, the believing years Carry the sea-wall ! Shall he, sighing, say : REWELL to Faith, for she is dead at best Who had such beauty? " or, with kisses lain For witness on her darkened doors, go by With a new psalm : " O banished light so nigh! Of them was I, who bore thee and who blest; Even here remember me when thou shalt reign." VI: A DECEMBER WALK. HITHERSOEVER cold and fair ye flow, Calm tides of moonlit mid- night, bear my mind ! Past pillared gates with leafy frost entwined, And Merton in his stern tiara's glow, And groves in bridal gossamers below Saint Mary's armoured spire ; and whence aligned In altered eminence for dawn to find, Sleep the droll Caesars, hooded with the snow. JHITE sacraments of weather, jshine on me, __ (And sift my footfall, and my fancy sift, Lest either blemish an ensainted ground Spread so with childhood. Here this hour, outbound, On recollected wing all angels drift Across new spheres of immortality. VII: ROOKS IN NEW COLLEGE GARDEN HRO' rosy cloud and over thorny towers, Their wings with darkling autumn distance filled, From Isis' valley border, hundred-hilled, The rooks are crowding home as evening lowers : Not for men only, and their musing hours, By battled walls did gracious Wykeham build These dewy spaces early sown and stilled, These dearest inland melancholy bowers. JLEST birds ! A book held open on Btheknee j Below, is all they know of Adam's blight: With surer art the while, and simpler rite They follow Truth in some monastic tree, Where breathe against their docile breasts by night The scholar's star, the star of sanctity. VIII: A LAST VIEW HERE down the glen, across the shallow ford, Stretches the open aisle from scene to'Scene, By halted horses silently we lean, Gazing enchanted from our steeper sward. How yon low loving skies of April hoard An hundred pinnacles, and how with sheen Of spike and ball her languid clouds be- tween, Grey Oxford grandly rises riverward ! ~1 WEET, on those dim long-dedi- icated walls, ] Silver as rain the frugal sunshine falls; Slowly sad eyes resign them, bound afar. Dear Beauty, dear Tradition, fare you well: And powers that aye aglow in you, impel Our quickening spirits from the slime we are* IX: RETRIEVAL. ITARS in the bosom of thy triple tide, [ June air and ivy on thy gra- cile stone, O glory of the west, as thou iwert sown Be perfect : O miraculous, abide ! And still for greatness floating from thy side, Eternal alchemist, upraise, enthrone Some presence of salvation, later blown From that same seed of fire which never died. O R faith shall lack her solace, to behold Staunch, to the morrow's hostile evil verge, New points of light subdue disclosing spaces; And round a beacon-spirit, stabile, old, In radiant broad tumultuary surge For ever, the young voices, the young faces. These nine Sonnets written at Oxford by Louise Imogen Guiney and decorated by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue are privately issued for them and their friends and for Herbert Copeland and F. H. Day and their friends at Christmas MDCCCXCV the printing having been done at the University Press in Cam- bridge Massachusetts & t* t* t* * * eT. 706573 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY