"England and Yesterday": A Book of Short Poems

Chapter 38: THE CHANTRY.

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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.

THE CHANTRY.

A loyal lady young; a knight for honour slain:

All beauty and all quiet sealed of old upon

Their images that lie in coif and morion.

A moment since, through rifts and pauses of the rain,

The day shot in; the lancet window showered again

Its moth-like play of silver, rose, and sapphire; shone

What arms of warring duchies glorious, bygone:

Lombardy, Desmond, Malta, suitored Aquitaine!

The while, aloft in Art’s immortal summertide,

Fair is the carven hostel, fortunate either guest,

And men of moodier England pass, and hear outside

Fury of toil alone, and fate’s diurnal storm,

Hearts with the King of Saints, hearts beating light and warm!

To these your courage give, that these attain your rest.