| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | XIV. To the Planet Venus,—An Evening Star | | By William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | (Composed at Loch-Lomond)
THOUGH joy attend thee orient at the birth | |
| Of dawn, it cheers the lofty spirit most | |
| To watch thy course when daylight, fled from earth, | |
| In the gray sky hath left his lingering ghost, | |
| Perplexed, as if between a splendor lost | 5 |
| And splendor slowly mustering. Since the sun, | |
| The absolute, the world-absorbing one, | |
| Relinquished half his empire to the host, | |
| Emboldened by thy guidance, holy star, | |
| Holy as princely, who that looks on thee, | 10 |
| Touching, as now, in thy humility | |
| The mountain borders of this seat of care, | |
| Can question that thy countenance is bright, | |
| Celestial Power! as much with love as light. | | | | |
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