Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke
John Addington Symonds (1840–1893)Extracts from Stella Maris: Three Sonnets: I. ‘Rebuke me not! I have nor wish nor skill’
R
To alter one hair’s breadth in all this house
Of Love, rising with domes so luminous
And air-built galleries on life’s topmost hill!
Only I know that fate, chance, years that kill,
Change that transmutes, have aimed their darts at us;
Envying each lovely shrine and amorous
Reared on earth’s soil by man’s too passionate will.
Dread thou the moment when these glittering towers,
These adamantine walls and gates of gems,
Shall fade like forms of sun-forsaken cloud;
When dulled by imperceptible chill hours,
The golden spires of our Jerusalems
Shall melt to mist and vanish in night’s shroud!