Marmion . cell,And the nuns loved their Abbess was this voyage to the dame;Summoned to Lindisfarne, she , with Saint Cuthberts Abbot old,And Tynemouths Prioress, to holdA chapter of Saint Benedict,For inquisition stern and strict,On two apostates from the faith,And, if need were, to doom to death. V. Nought say I here of Sister Clare,Save this, that she was young and fair;As yet a novice unprofessed,Lovely and gentle, but was betrothed to one now Avorse, who had dishonored kinsmen bade her give her handTo one who loved her for her land:Herself
Marmion . cell,And the nuns loved their Abbess was this voyage to the dame;Summoned to Lindisfarne, she , with Saint Cuthberts Abbot old,And Tynemouths Prioress, to holdA chapter of Saint Benedict,For inquisition stern and strict,On two apostates from the faith,And, if need were, to doom to death. V. Nought say I here of Sister Clare,Save this, that she was young and fair;As yet a novice unprofessed,Lovely and gentle, but was betrothed to one now Avorse, who had dishonored kinsmen bade her give her handTo one who loved her for her land:Herself, almost heart-broken bent to take the vestal vow,And shroud, within Saint Hildas gloom,Her blasted hopes and withered bloom. VI. She sate upon the galleys prow, And seemed to mark the waves below; Nay, seemed, so fixed her look and eye, To count them as they glided by. She saw them not — twas seeming all — Far other scene her thoughts recall,— A sun-scorched desert, waste and bare. CANTO CANTO II. THE CONVENT. 77 Nor waves, nor breezes, murmured there;There saw she, where some careless handOer a dead corpse had heaped the sand,To hide it till the jackals come,To tear it from tlic scanty tomb.—See what a woful look was she raised up her eyes to heaven! Lovely, and gentle, and distressed — These charms might tame the fiercest breast: Harpers have sung, and poets told. That he, in fury uncontrolled, The shaggy monarch of the wood. Before a virgin, fair and good. Hath pacified his savage mood. But passions in the human frame Oft put the lions rage to shame: And jealousy, by dark intrigue. With sordid avarice in league, Had practised with their bowl and knife, Against the mourners harmless life. This crime was charged gainst those who lay Prisoned in Cuthberts islet gray. VIII. And now the vessel skirts the strandOf mountainous Northumberland ;Towns, towers, and halls, successive rise,And catch the nuns delighted soon behind them
Size: 1284px × 1946px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidmarmion00sco, bookyear1885
