HONORIA'S LOVE

AND OTHER SONNETS

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A

HONORIA'S LOVE

INTRODUCTION

OF all the various methods adopted by poets in giving a love-story, no one, as far as I am aware, has attempted such a task in sonnets which are the outcome of the lady's feelings.

Innumerable sonnets have been addressed by the lover to his mistress; but few have undertaken in this form of verse the expression of the lady's sentiments under similar conditions.

In Honoria's Love' are depicted the several emotions of the mind when under the influence of love; each sonnet expressing a separate phase of that passion which is admitted to be the strongest of all human passions.

The baser feelings of jealousy and vexationthe usual accompaniments of an ill-fated love-are not treated here, for Honoria is above her sex in

generosity and gentleness. Inspired by the deepest passion, her heart knows no reproach. Even at the moment of her desertion she shows no scorn towards her vacillating lover, whose easy, voluptuous nature refuses to combat with the obstructions which circumstances have placed in the way of their union.

Owing to the form of the verse, the eighteen sonnets are less a love-story than an exposition of the emotions.

I

LOVE'S ENTRANCE

OH, Kingly Love, when first thou didst enthral
My soul in thy sweet bonds, I hardly knew
Thy presence: filled with joy, what could I do
But gaze upon thy face, and at thy call

Give willing ear; then straight before thee fall,
In meekness yielding loving homage, true.
What sum of bliss wrapped up in moments few!
Life's sweetest mystery is made my all.

Beneath thy flowing robes, where none could see,

Were chains invisible; then didst thou take

And lace elysian unseen spells o'er me.

What boots it that impetuously I make

These struggles?

decree ;

Vain to strive 'gainst thy

For Love is life. Life's sweet for Love's dear sake.