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