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

Aubrey Thomas De Vere b. 1814

Cardinal Manning

I LEARN’D his greatness first at Lavington:

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.”