ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
IX. DISSENSIONS
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
THAT heresies should strike (if truth be scanned Presumptuously) their roots both wide and deep, Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep. Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand Uplifting toward high Heaven her fiery brand, A cherished Priestess of the new-baptized! But chastisement shall follow peace despised. The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land By Rome abandoned; vain are suppliant cries, And prayers that would undo her forced farewell; 10 For she returns not.–Awed by her own knell, She casts the Britons upon strange Allies Soon to become more dreaded enemies Than heartless misery called them to repel.