A Book of Christian Sonnets. william Allen
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William Allen
A Book of Christian Sonnets
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066124496
Table of Contents
REMARKS ON THE NATURE AND HISTORY OF THE SONNET.
PREFACE.
For some remarks on the nature and history of the Sonnet and its peculiar excellence, as exemplified by Milton, the reader is referred to the Notes at the close of this book. The Author regards it as by its fixed laws and its structure the very best form of poetry for one short, complete, meditative lesson. A collection of such distinct, separate little poems—mostly written within a recent period—and not mingled with other forms of poetry—constitutes this little volume.
The notes annexed are historical and illustrative, elucidatory of what from the necessary brevity of the verse might be otherwise left obscure, or such as seemed to be required by the unevasible claims and the infinite worth of the revealed Christian truth, which makes the texture of these sonnets.
While Petrarch, the inventor of the Sonetto, Spenser, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and other foreign poets have written a multitude of sonnets, it is to the author a matter of surprise, that not more than half a dozen sonnets—within his knowledge—have ever been sent forth by any one of our poets; so that this may be regarded as the first book of American Sonnets ever published.
An old man, the tenant for a year past of a sick chamber, who from early life has been a student and cultivator of poetry, has found not a little pleasure in such musings, as he now offers to the public. His meditations, it may well be supposed, have not been of fictitious scenes. Aware of his liableness at any moment to be summoned away from this world—which to his eye is filled with beauty mingled indeed with deformity—into a world of undefaced loveliness and eternal glory, he could not have excused himself, if he had employed the precarious time lent to him in drawing idle, uninstructive, unprofitable pictures; but his mind has been filled with intense thoughts on God's pure, unchanging, soul-saving Truth; and he has endeavored to give true sketches, however faint and feeble, of divine and eternal realities not unworthy of the contemplation nor unfit to awaken the affections of rational, immortal men. The uninterrupted study of God's Word for 50 or 60 years may be his apology for declaring what in his judgment are plainly and indubitably some of the great truths of that Word. But he earnestly asks the reader to search the Scriptures with his own eyes. What God has said is true.
Northampton, Dec. 19, 1859
A BOOK OF CHRISTIAN SONNETS.
1. ON WASHINGTON. (notes)
Great Washington! Mount Vernon's shade were naught,
Except as close allied to thine own name;
And what but noblest virtues without blame
Have all the lustre of thy glory wrought?
Our country's chief in freedom's battle fought,
Thy sword laid down in triumph's loud acclaim;
Then "First in peace," our nation's good thine aim,
To Rulers many a lesson thou hast taught.
The model patriot thou, thy life unstain'd;
A rev'rent worshipper of God, we see
Thine end was peace; one noble act remain'd—
Thy dying voice said to thy slaves, "Be Free!"—
With no dear son, each Freeman is thy Son,
And thou his Father lov'd, Great Washington!
2. THE STARS. (notes)
In the sweet silence of a cloudless night
The glory-studded firmament on high
With wonder overwhelms my gazing eye,
Lost in the wilderness of worlds of light.
Around these suns do systems wheel their flight,
All pure and spotless as the crystal sky,
Th' abodes of bliss serene without a sigh,
Where mists and clouds ne'er rise nor storms affright?
O, for an angel's wings to fly away
From this low world of sin, and woe, and care,
And gain those orbs of purity and love!
Wish not for angel's wings: thy God obey,
And soon his grace thy ransom'd soul will bear
Up to his own more glorious throne above!
3. LAST WISH OF WM. H. PRESCOTT. (notes)
Still beautiful in this thy rest so deep,
Thy final wish fulfill'd, we see thy face
Calm as in life, with not a marring trace
Of the swift blow, which calls thy friends to weep.
What hosts of mighty dead around thee keep
On these rich-loaded shelves their silent place?—
"Farewell, companions lov'd; like your's my race
Is run; tomorrow in the ground I sleep."—
What would he teach us, living, by this scene?—
Books! books! are earth's invaluable lights;
Treasures of truth, the richest gifts terrene,
Left by fled spirits in their upward flights!
And what does man demand, in age and youth,
But heav'n-descended, heav'nward-guiding Truth?
4. ON WAR. (notes)
"Thou shalt not kill,"—the Almighty God hath said.
Then, Mighty Kings! who glory in your shame
And swim in blood to gain a hero's name,
What awful doom—with all your greatness fled—
When, rising with your subjects from the dead,
Ye stand in judgment? What will then be fame?
And will not fiery courage be quite tame;—
On ev'ry side th' Almighty's terrors spread?
O, Living Monarchs! within reach of grace,
Of love and mercy from the throne of God,
Forgiveness