The Poetry Corner

Sonnet

By Charles Kingsley

Oh, thou hadst been a wife for Shakspeare's self! No head, save some world-genius, ought to rest Above the treasures of that perfect breast, Or nightly draw fresh light from those keen stars Through which thy soul awes ours:yet thou art bound - O waste of nature! - to a craven hound; To shameless lust, and childish greed of pelf; Athene to a Satyr:was that link Forged by The Father's hand?Man's reason bars The bans which God allowed. - Ay, so we think: Forgetting, thou hadst weaker been, full blest, Than thus made strong by suffering; and more great In martyrdom, than throned as Caesar's mate. Eversley, 1851.