| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | V. Poets | | By John R. Tait (1834–1909) |
| | | O, THERE are gentle souls on earth imbued | |
| With love of man and nature’s loveliness, | |
| Who, like fair trees uprising ’mid a wood, | |
| Grow toward heaven, the while they ever bless | |
| With pleasing shade and liberal fruitfulness | 5 |
| The seeker at their feet. Warm gratitude | |
| Be theirs, and theirs the soft caress | |
| Of gentlest zephyrs; be their solitude | |
| Made populous with angels, all sublime | |
| Their history, and when the woodmen come, | 10 |
| Transplanting them to that far sunnier clime | |
| Where Eden’s bays will rustle welcomes home, | |
| Then may their lives, as some grand epic tome, | |
| Close with a lofty hope, like an immortal rhyme. | | | | |
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