"England and Yesterday": A Book of Short Poems

Chapter 25: X. MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL.

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About This Book

The collection gathers sonnets and shorter lyrics that observe English locales, chiefly London and Oxford, and move between public bustle and quiet precincts. Urban pieces register fog, crowds, docks, and social inequality alongside civic and ecclesiastical history; Oxford poems and pastoral lyrics dwell on college gardens, ancient churches, and memory. The verse balances formal sonnet discipline with lyrical interludes, employing vivid sensory detail and reflective, often elegiac tone. Recurring concerns include transience, the persistence of historical presence, spiritual consolation, and a moral awareness of poverty and beauty.

X.
MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL.

Such natural debts of love our Oxford knows,

So many ancient dues undesecrate,

I marvel how the landmark of a hate

For witness unto future time she chose;

How out of her corroborate ranks arose

The three, in great denial only great,

For Art’s enshrining! . . Thus, averted straight,

My soul to seek a holier captain goes:

That sweet adventurer whom Truth befell

Whenas the synagogues were watching not;

Whose crystal name on royal Oriel

Hangs like a shield; who to an outland spot

Led hence, beholds his Star; and counts it well

Of all his dear domain to live forgot.