Oft have I seen at some cathedral door A laborer, pausing in the dust and heat, Lay down his burden, and with reverent feet Enter, and cross himself, and on the floor Kneel to repeat his Paternoster o'er; Far off the noises of the world retreat; The loud vociferations of the street Become an undistinguishable roar. So, as I enter here from day to day, And leave my burden at this minster gate, Kneeling in prayer, and not ashamed to pray, The tumult of the time disconsolate To inarticulate murmurs dies away, While the eternal ages watch and wait. (LONGFELLOW: _Sonnets on the Divina Commedia_, i. 1864.) Caliph, I did thee wrong. I hailed thee late "Abdul the Damned," and would recall my word. It merged thee with the unillustrious herd Who crowd the approaches to the infernal gate-- Spirits gregarious, equal in their state As is the innumerable ocean bird, Gannet or gull, whose wandering plaint is heard On Ailsa or Iona desolate. For, in a world where cruel deeds abound, The merely damned are legion: with such souls Is not each hollow and cranny of Tophet crammed? Thou with the brightest of Hell's aureoles Dost shine supreme, incomparably crowned, Immortally, beyond all mortals, damned. (WILLIAM WATSON: _To the Sultan_, in _The Year of Shame_. 1897.) Mr. William Archer says of Mr. Watson's political sonnets, that the form becomes in his hands "a weapon like the sling of David. In the octave he whirls it round and round with ever-gathering momentum, and in the sestet sends his scorn or rebuke singing through the air, arrow-straight to its mark." (_Poets of the Younger Generation_, p. 503.) B.--THE ENGLISH (SHAKSPERIAN) SONNET From Tuskane came my Ladies worthy race: Faire Florence was sometyme her auncient seate: The Western yle, whose pleasaunt shore dothe face Wilde Cambers clifs, did geve her lively heate: Fostered she was with milke of Irishe brest: Her sire, an Erle; her dame, of princes blood. From tender yeres, in Britain she doth rest, With kinges childe, where she tasteth costly food. Honsdon did first present her to mine yien: Bright is her hewe, and Geraldine she hight. Hampton me taught to wishe her first for mine: And Windsor, alas, dothe chase me from her sight. Her beauty of kind, her vertues from above. Happy is he that can obtaine her love. (EARL OF SURREY: _Description and praise of his love Geraldine_. In Tottel's _Songs and Sonnets_, p. 9. Pub. 1557.)