Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part III. - XV - Concluded. American Episcopacy
By William Wordsworth
III Concluded. American Episcopacy
Patriots informed with Apostolic light
Were they, who, when their Country had been freed,
Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed,
Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight,
And strove in filial love to reunite
What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed
Of Christian unity, and won a meed
Of praise from Heaven. To Thee, O saintly white,
Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,
Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn,
Whether they would restore or build to Thee,
As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn,
As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn
The purest stream of patient Energy.