| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | VII. Hugh Stuart Boyd: Legacies | | By Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | | THREE gifts the dying left me: Æschylus, | |
| And Gregory Nazianzen, and a clock | |
| Chiming the gradual hours out like a flock | |
| Of stars, whose motion is melodious. | |
| The books were those I used to read from, thus | 5 |
| Assisting my dear teacher’s soul to unlock | |
| The darkness of his eyes; now, mine they mock, | |
| Blinded in turn, by tears: now, murmurous | |
| Sad echoes of my young voice, years agone, | |
| Intoning, from these leaves, the Grecian phrase, | 10 |
| Return and choke my utterance. Books, lie down | |
| In silence on the shelf within my gaze! | |
| And thou, clock, striking the hour’s pulses on, | |
| Chime in the day which ends these parting days! | | | | |
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