Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

James Kenneth Stephen 1859–92

A Sonnet

TWO voices are there: one is of the deep;

It learns the storm-cloud’s thunderous melody,

Now roars, now murmurs with the changing sea,

Now bird-like pipes, now closes soft in sleep:

And one is of an old half-witted sheep

Which bleats articulate monotony,

And indicates that two and one are three,

That grass is green, lakes damp, and mountains steep:

And, Wordsworth, both are thine: at certain times,

Forth from the heart of thy melodious rhymes

The form and pressure of high thoughts will burst:

At other times—good Lord! I ’d rather be

Quite unacquainted with the A. B. C.

Than write such hopeless rubbish as thy worst.