Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By Louise ImogenGuiney1421 A Footnote to a Famous Lyric
T
Shakespeare and Sidney failed to teach,
A steel-and-velvet Cavalier
Gave to our Saxon speech:
That upstart enviers adore:
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.
But sighed in smiling, as he read:
“Here ’s theft of the supremest thing
A poet might have said!”
Mid war’s adventure, ladies’ praise,
Was ’t well of you, ere you had done,
To blight our modern bays?
Struck from the dark whole gems like these,
Archaic beauty, never planned
Nor reared by wan degrees,
An earldom richer all her years;
To you, dead on your shield apart,
Be “Ave!” passed in tears.
Her master, and in lauds be loath?
Your worth, your work, bid us discern
Light exquisite in both.
Heroic from the heart it ran;
Nor for the shedding of such fire
Lives since a manlier man.
So lovely aye, so lonely long,
Love’s self outdo, dear Lovelace! hold
The pinnacles of song.