SONNET

          WHY should we weep or mourn, Angelic boy,
          For such thou wert ere from our sight removed,
          Holy, and ever dutiful--beloved
          From day to day with never-ceasing joy,
          And hopes as dear as could the heart employ
          In aught to earth pertaining? Death has proved
          His might, nor less his mercy, as behoved--
          Death conscious that he only could destroy
          The bodily frame. That beauty is laid low
          To moulder in a far-off field of Rome;                      10
          But Heaven is now, blest Child, thy Spirit's home:
          When such divine communion, which we know,
          Is felt, thy Roman-burial place will be
          Surely a sweet remembrancer of Thee.
                                                              1846.