ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XXXIII. REGRETS
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
WOULD that our scrupulous Sires had dared to leave Less scanty measure of those graceful rites And usages, whose due return invites A stir of mind too natural to deceive; Giving to Memory help when she would weave A crown for Hope!–I dread the boasted lights That all too often are but fiery blights, Killing the bud o’er which in vain we grieve. Go, seek, when Christmas snows discomfort bring, The counter Spirit found in some gay church 10 Green with fresh holly, every pew a perch In which the linnet or the thrush might sing, Merry and loud and safe from prying search, Strains offered only to the genial Spring.