| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | I. To Lord Byron | | By Richard Henry Wilde (1789–1847) |
| | | BYRON! ’t is thine alone, on eagles’ pinions, | |
| In solitary strength and grandeur soaring, | |
| To dazzle and delight all eyes; outpouring | |
| The electric blaze on tyrants and their minions; | |
| Earth, sea, and air, and powers and dominions, | 5 |
| Nature, man, time, the universe exploring; | |
| And from the wreck of worlds, thrones, creeds, opinions, | |
| Thought, beauty, eloquence, and wisdom storing: | |
| O, how I love and envy thee thy glory, | |
| To every age and clime alike belonging; | 10 |
| Linked by all tongues with every nation’s glory. | |
| Thou TACITUS of song! whose echoes, thronging | |
| O’er the Atlantic, fill the mountains hoary | |
| And forests with the name my verse is wronging. | | | | |
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