ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XV. PAULINUS
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
BUT, to remote Northumbria’s royal Hall, Where thoughtful Edwin, tutored in the school Of sorrow, still maintains a heathen rule, ‘Who’ comes with functions apostolical? Mark him, of shoulders curved, and stature tall, Black hair, and vivid eye, and meagre cheek, His prominent feature like an eagle’s beak; A Man whose aspect doth at once appal And strike with reverence. The Monarch leans Toward the pure truths this Delegate propounds 10 Repeatedly his own deep mind he sounds With careful hesitation,–then convenes A synod of his Councillors:–give ear, And what a pensive Sage doth utter, hear!