Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
V. Queen ElizabethSir Aubrey de Vere (17881846)
T
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!