| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | At St. Oswald’s | | By Margaret (Junkin) Preston (1820–1897) |
| | | WITHIN the church I knelt, where many a year | |
| Wordsworth had worshipped, while his musing eye | |
| Wandered o’er mountain, fell, and scaur, and sky, | |
| That rimmed the silver circle of Grasmere, | |
| Whose crystal held an under-world as clear | 5 |
| As that which girt it round; and questioned why | |
| The place was sacred for his lifted sigh, | |
| More than the humble dalesman’s kneeling near. | |
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| Strange spell of Genius!—that can melt the soul | |
| To reverence tenderer than o’er it falls | 10 |
| Beneath the marvellous heavens which God hath made, | |
| And sway it with such human-sweet control | |
| That holier henceforth seem these simple walls, | |
| Because within them once a poet prayed! | | | | |
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