| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Renunciation | | By Wathen Marks Wilks Call (1817–1890) |
| | | WAKEFUL I lay all night and thought of God, | |
| Of heaven, and of the crowns pale martyrs gain, | |
| Of souls in high and purgatorial pain, | |
| And the red path which murder’d seers have trod; | |
| I heard the trumpets which the angels blow | 5 |
| I saw the cleaving sword, the measuring rod, | |
| I watch’d the stream of sound continuous flow | |
| Past the gold towers where seraphs make abode. | |
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| But now I let the aching splendour go, | |
| I dare not call the crownèd angels peers | 10 |
| Henceforth. I am content to dwell below | |
| Mid common joys, with humble smiles and tears | |
| Delighted in the sun and breeze to grow, | |
| A child of human hopes and human fears. | | | | |
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