"METHOUGHT I SAW THE FOOTSTEPS OF A THRONE"
Reading edition
Composed 1806.—Published 1807
[The latter part of this sonnet was a great favourite with my sister S. H. When I saw her lying in death, I could not resist the impulse to compose the Sonnet that follows it.—I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."—Ed.
Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne Which mists and vapours from mine eyes did shroud— Nor view of who might sit[1] thereon allowed; But all the steps and ground about were strown With sights the ruefullest that flesh and bone 5 Ever put on; a miserable crowd, Sick, hale, old, young, who cried before that cloud, "Thou art our king, O Death! to thee we groan." Those steps I clomb; the mists before me gave[2] Smooth way; and I beheld the face of one 10 Sleeping alone within a mossy cave, With her face up to heaven; that seemed to have Pleasing remembrance of a thought foregone; A lovely Beauty in a summer grave!
"The Sonnet that follows," referred to in the Fenwick note, is one belonging to the year 1836, beginning—
Even so for me a Vision sanctified.
See the note to that sonnet.—Ed.
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