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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  David Gray (1838–1861)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

I. To the Mavis

David Gray (1838–1861)

SWEET Mavis! at this cool delicious hour

Of gloaming, when a pensive quietness

Hushes the odorous air,—with what a power

Of impulse unsubdued, thou dost express

Thyself a spirit! While the silver dew

Holy as manna on the meadow falls,

Thy song’s impassioned clarity, trembling through

This omnipresent stillness, disenthralls

The soul to adoration. First I heard

A low, thick, lubric gurgle, soft as love,

Yet sad as memory, through the silence poured

Like starlight. But the mood intenser grows,

Precipitate rapture quickens, move on move

Lucidly linked together, till the close.