SONNETS.

TINTERN ABBEY,

IN FOUR SONNETS.

The ruin speaks that sometime it was a worthy building.

SHAKSPEARE.

Come like shadows, so depart.-Ibid.

I.

I DID not visit thee" by pale moonlight”— (1)
I needed not the midnight's lonely hour
To add its spells unto thy wondrous power,
And people with strange form and airy sprite
Each silent cloister-each deserted aisle.

The noonday sun beamed on thee, but his smile
Told of thy prouder days. I could not dream,—
And yet a visionary band arose,

'Mid solemn music's thrilling swell and close, A silent, shadowy train: the taper's gleam Fitfully o'er monastic forms was shed,

O'er mitre'd abbot, and the lengthened line

Of dark-cowled monks, that bent around the shrine,

Still, calm, and voiceless as the slumb'ring dead.