Poem of the Day

I decided to check out Sonnet Central because I haven’t posted a sonnet in a while. Craik is the author of one of my favorite poems.

Dante to Beatrice
By Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

I see thee, gliding towards me with slow pace
Across the azure fields of Paradise,
Where thine each footstep makes a star arise.
So from this heart’s once void but infinite space
Each strange sweet touch of thy celestial grace
In the old mortal life, struck out some spark
To light the world, though all my heaven lay dark.
O Beatrice, cypresses enlace
My laurels: none have grown save tear-bedewed—
Salt tears that sank into the earth unviewed,
And sprang up green to form a crown of bays.
Take it! At thy dear feet I lay my all,
What men my honors, virtues, glories, call:
I lived, loved, suffered, sung—for thy sole praise.

One of my favorite poems is Friendship by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, so when I found some of her sonnets at Sonnet Central, I had to share one.

Sunday Morning Bells
By Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

From the near city comes the clang of bells:
Their hundred jarring diverse tones combine
In one faint misty harmony, as fine
As the soft note yon winter robin swells.—
What if to Thee in Thine Infinity
These multiform and many-colored creeds
Seem but the robe man wraps as masquers’ weeds
Round the one living truth Thou givest him—Thee?
What if these varied forms that worship prove,
Being heart-worship, reach Thy perfect ear
But as a monotone, complete and clear,
Of which the music is, through Christ’s name, Love?
Forever rising in sublime increase
To “Glory in the Highest,—on earth peace?”

I love this poem and I’ve been meaning to post it for a while. I just found it on my computer, so here it is…

Friendship
By Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

Oh, the comfort—the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person,
Having neither to weigh thoughts,
Nor measure words—just as they are—
Chaff and grain together—
Certain that a faithful hand will
Take and sift them—
Keep what is worth keeping—

And with the breath of kindness
Blow the rest away.