Volume 1 — From The Month. SONNET. UNSPIRITUAL CIVILIZATION.
Reading edition
We have been piping, Lord; we have been singing; Five hundred years have passed o'er lawn and lea, Marked by the blowing bud and falling tree, While all the ways with melody were ringing: In tented lists, high-stationed and flower-flinging, Beauty looked down on conquering chivalry; Science made wise the nations; laws made free; Art, like an angel ever onward winging, Brightened the world. But, O great Lord and Father! Have these, thy bounties, drawn to thee man's race, That stood so far aloof? Have they not rather His soul subjected? with a blind embrace Gulfed it in sense? Prime blessings changed to curse 'Twixt God and man can set God's universe. AUBREY DE VERE.
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