ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
IV. DRUIDICAL EXCOMMUNICATION
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
MERCY and Love have met thee on thy road, Thou wretched Outcast, from the gift of fire And food cut off by sacerdotal ire, From every sympathy that Man bestowed! Yet shall it claim our reverence, that to God, Ancient of days! that to the eternal Sire, These jealous Ministers of law aspire, As to the one sole fount whence wisdom flowed, Justice, and order. Tremblingly escaped, As if with prescience of the coming storm, 10 ‘That’ intimation when the stars were shaped; And still, ‘mid yon thick woods, the primal truth Glimmers through many a superstitious form That fills the Soul with unavailing ruth.