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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

V. Queen Elizabeth

Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846)

THE LIONESS that stalks the forest bound

More awful in her presence and her port

Looked not than she: high in her cloudy court

The rock-throned osprey, glancing sternly round

Through sun-lit air unshaken by a sound,

From low desires and the base world’s resort

Seemed elevated less: the dolphin’s sport

O’er foam-flecked waves and sapphire depths profound

Showed not a pageant to the eye of morn

More bright. Her thoughts were in the purple born;

Her eye was empery; she gave the nod,

And all obeyed; all earthly powers with scorn

She noted; yea, the fane itself she trod

As though she were the sister of a god!