English Sonnets by Poets of the Past

that an answer will be found to the question so often
asked, What is the especial merit of "this curiously
favourite and fortunate form of verse?" But, indeed, no
answer is necessary when one meets with such a charming
example of the form as the following sonnet, addressed
by a living sonneteer to Wordsworth, which should have
been included in our previous volume :-

So long as Duddon 'twixt his cloud-girt walls
Thridding the woody chambers of the hills
Warbles from vaulted grot and pebbled halls
Farewell or welcome to the meadow rills;

So long as linnets chant low madrigals

Near that brown nook the labourer whistling tills,
Or the late-reddening apple forms and falls
Mid dewy brakes the autumnal redbreast thrills,→

So long, last poet of the great old race,

Shall thy broad song through England's bosom roll,
A river singing anthems in its place,

And be to later England as a soul.

Glory to Him who made thee, and increase

To them that hear thy word, of love and peace!'

The Editor begs to thank once more the owners of the copyright of the sonnets published during recent years, for kindly allowing him to include them in his selection.

47, Connaught Street,

HYDE PARK, W.
August, 1881.