SONNET.
        MILTON.
 
        Oh bard! what though upon thy mortal eyes
            There fell no glimmering ray of earthly light,
            And the deep shadow of eternal night
        Shut from thy gaze our lovely earth and skies,
        Yet was it to thy spirit's vision given
            To gaze upon the splendors of that shore
            Eye had not seen, nor heart conceived before.
        Then didst thou, Poet Laureate of heaven,
            Sing of those courts and of that angel host,
        Of that majestic Spirit who in vain
        Dared, warred, and fell, never to rise again,
            And of that Paradise so early lost,
        In strains "posterity shall not let die,"
        In "thoughts that wander through eternity."