| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Sonnet’s Voice |
| | | Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832–1914) |
| | | | | A Metrical Lesson by the Seashore |
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| YON silvery billows breaking on the beach | |
| Fall back in foam beneath the star-shine clear, | |
| The while my rhymes are murmuring in your ear | |
| A restless lore like that the billows teach; | |
| For on these sonnet-waves my soul would reach | 5 |
| From its own depths, and rest within you, dear, | |
| As, through the billowy voices yearning here, | |
| Great nature strives to find a human speech. | |
| A sonnet is a wave of melody: | |
| From heaving waters of the impassion’d soul | 10 |
| A billow of tidal music one and whole | |
| Flows in the “octave;” then returning free, | |
| Its ebbing surges in the “sestet” roll | |
| Back to the deeps of Life’s tumultuous sea. | |
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