On First Entering Westminster Abbey

Holy of England! since my light is short And faint, O rather by the sun anew Of timeless passion set my dial true, That with thy saints and thee I may consort, And, wafted in the cool, enshadowed port Of poets, seem a little sail long due, And be as one the call of memory drew Unto the saddle void since Agincourt! Not now, for secular love’s unquiet lease, Receive my soul, who, rapt in thee ere-while, Hath broken tryst with transitory things; But seal with her a marriage and a peace Eternal, on thine Edward’s altar-isle, Above the oval sea of ended kings.

Collection: 
English
Louise Imogen Guiney

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