Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Aubrey Thomas De Vere b. 1814Cardinal Manning
I
The moon had early sought her bed of brine,
But we discours’d till now each starry sign
Had sunk: our theme was one and one alone:
“Two minds supreme,” he said, “our earth has known;
One sang in science; one serv’d God in song;
Aquinas—Dante.” Slowly in me grew strong
A thought, “These two great minds in him are one;
‘Lord, what shall this man do?’” Later at Rome
Beside the dust of Peter and of Paul
Eight hundred mitred sires of Christendom
In Council sat. I mark’d him ’mid them all;
I thought of that long night in years gone by
And cried, “At last my question meets reply.”