ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
II. CONJECTURES
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
IF there be prophets on whose spirits rest Past things, revealed like future, they can tell What Powers, presiding o’er the sacred well Of Christian Faith, this savage Island blessed With its first bounty. Wandering through the west, Did holy Paul a while in Britain dwell, And call the Fountain forth by miracle, And with dread signs the nascent Stream invest? Or He, whose bonds dropped off, whose prison doors Flew open, by an Angel’s voice unbarred? 10 Or some of humbler name, to these wild shores Storm-driven; who, having seen the cup of woe Pass from their Master, sojourned here to guard The precious Current they had taught to flow?