Poem by William Wordsworth

* * *

Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,
Mindless of its just honours; with this key
Shakspeare unlocked his heart; the melody
Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;
A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;
With it Camoens soothed an exile's grief;
The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf
Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned
His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp,
It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land
To struggle through dark ways; and, when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew
Soul-animating strains - alas, too few!

1. Gordale
2. Inside of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge: The Same
3. For the Spot Where the Hermitage Stood on St. Herbert’s Island, Derwent Water
4. To the River Derwent
5. The Glen of Loch Etive

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