| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. To Silvio Pellico | | By Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–1886) |
| | (On Reading the Account of His Imprisonment)
AH! who may guess, who yet was never tried, | |
| How fearful the temptation to reply | |
| With wrong for wrong; yea, fiercely to defy | |
| In spirit, even where action is denied? | |
| Therefore praise waits on thee, not drawn aside | 5 |
| By this strong lure of hell; on thee, whose eye, | |
| Being formed by love, could everywhere descry | |
| Love, or some workings unto love allied; | |
| And benediction on the grace that dealt | |
| So with thy soul; and prayer, more earnest prayer, | 10 |
| Intenser longing than before we felt, | |
| For all that in dark places lying are; | |
| For captives in strange lands; for them who pine | |
| In depth of dungeon, or in sunless mine. | | | | |
|
|
