Poems, Chiefly Lyrical/Sonnet to J.M.K.
For other versions of this work, see Sonnet to J.M.K..
SONNET TO J. M. K.
My hope and heart is with thee—thou wilt be
A latter Luther, and a soldier-priest
To scare church-harpies from the master's feast:
Our dusted velvets have much need of thee;
Thou art no sabbath-drawler of old saws,
Distilled from some wormcankered homily;
But spurred at heart with fieriest energy
To embattail and to wall about thy cause
With ironworded proof, hating to hark
The humming of the drowsy pulpitdrone
Half God's good sabbath, while the worn-out clerk
Browbeats his desk below. Thou from a throne
Mounted in heaven wilt shoot into the dark
Arrows of lightnings. I will stand and mark.
A latter Luther, and a soldier-priest
To scare church-harpies from the master's feast:
Our dusted velvets have much need of thee;
Thou art no sabbath-drawler of old saws,
Distilled from some wormcankered homily;
But spurred at heart with fieriest energy
To embattail and to wall about thy cause
With ironworded proof, hating to hark
The humming of the drowsy pulpitdrone
Half God's good sabbath, while the worn-out clerk
Browbeats his desk below. Thou from a throne
Mounted in heaven wilt shoot into the dark
Arrows of lightnings. I will stand and mark.