Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

XIV. To the Planet Venus,—An Evening Star

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

THOUGH joy attend thee orient at the birth

Of dawn, it cheers the lofty spirit most

To watch thy course when daylight, fled from earth,

In the gray sky hath left his lingering ghost,

Perplexed, as if between a splendor lost

And splendor slowly mustering. Since the sun,

The absolute, the world-absorbing one,

Relinquished half his empire to the host,

Emboldened by thy guidance, holy star,

Holy as princely, who that looks on thee,

Touching, as now, in thy humility

The mountain borders of this seat of care,

Can question that thy countenance is bright,

Celestial Power! as much with love as light.