SONNET: STRATFORD-ON-AVON, MAY 14, 1880 by CONSTANCE CAROLINE WOODHILL NADEN

THE grey old church is solemn in the sheen
Of noonday -- half its reverend beauty won
From that blind, silent, lifeless denizen
Who sleeps within; whose living soul is seen
In tall and arching lindens, freshly green,
With light leaves golden-twinkling in the sun;
In all sweet May-tide joyance, new begun,
That sings or blooms where frost and snow have been
And in the rippling, daisy-bordered river,
That flashes back the joy of God and man,
And whispers to fresh hearts, that wake and quiver,
Such melodies, as round young Shakespeare wove
Their spells, while near his feet the Avon ran,
Changeful, yet changeless, e'en as life and love.

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