SONNETS

III. ST. CATHERINE OF LEDBURY

          WHEN human touch (as monkish books attest)
          Nor was applied nor could be, Ledbury bells
          Broke forth in concert flung adown the dells,
          And upward, high as Malvern's cloudy crest;
          Sweet tones, and caught by a noble Lady blest
          To rapture! Mabel listened at the side
          Of her loved mistress: soon the music died,
          And Catherine said, "Here I set up my rest."
          Warned in a dream, the Wanderer long had sought
          A home that by such miracle of sound                        10
          Must be revealed:--she heard it now, or felt
          The deep, deep joy of a confiding thought;
          And there, a saintly Anchoress, she dwelt
          Till she exchanged for heaven that happy ground.
                                                              1835.