One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED. Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned, Mindless of its just honours; with this key Shakspeare unlocked his heart;[462] the melody Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;[463] A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;[464] 5 With it Camöens soothed[465] an exile's grief;[466] The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf Amid the cypress with which Dante[467] crowned His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp, It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land 10 To struggle through dark ways;[468] and, when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The Thing became a trumpet;[469] whence he blew Soul-animating strains--alas, too few![470] FOOTNOTES: [462] Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical: compare Nos. 24, 30, 39, 105, 116.--ED. [463] Petrarch's were all inspired by his devotion to Laura.--ED. [464] Tasso's works include two volumes of sonnets, first published in 1581 and 1592.--ED. [465] 1837. Camöens soothed with it ... 1827. [466] For his satire _Disparates na India_, Camöens was banished to Macao in 1556, where he wrote the _Os Lusiadas_, also many sonnets and lyric poems.--ED. [467] Compare the _Vita Nuova_, _passim_.--ED. [468] Spenser wrote ninety-two sonnets. From the eightieth sonnet it would seem that the writing of them was a relaxation, after the labour spent upon the _Faërie Queene_. It is to this sonnet that Wordsworth alludes. After so long a race as I have run Through Faery land, which these six books compile, Give leave to rest me, being half foredone, And gather to myself new breath awhile.--ED. [469] Milton's twenty-three sonnets were written partly in English, partly in Italian. Compare Wordsworth's sonnet, addressed to him in 1802, beginning:-- Milton, thou should'st be living at this hour.--ED. [470] Compare the sonnet beginning-- Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room.--ED. "FAIR PRIME OF LIFE! WERE IT ENOUGH TO GILD" Composed 1827.--Published 1827 [Suggested by observation of the way in which a young friend, whom I do not choose to name, misspent his time and misapplied his talents. He took afterwards a better course, and became a useful member of society, respected, I believe, wherever he has been known.--I. F.] One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.