Poem by Richard Watson Gilder

The Sonnet

(In Answer to a Question)

WHAT is a sonnet? 'T is the pearly shell
    That murmurs of the far-off murmuring sea; 
    A precious jewel carved most curiously; 
    It is a little picture painted well. 
What is a sonnet? 'T is the tear that fell
    From a great poet's hidden ecstacy; 
    A two-edged sword, a star, a song--ah me! 
    Sometimes a heavy-tolling funeral bell. 
This was the flame that shook with Dante's breath;
    The solemn organ whereon Milton played, 
    And the clear glass where Shakespeare's shadow falls: 
A sea this is--beware who ventureth!
    For like a fjord the narrow floor is laid 
    Deep as mid-ocean to the sheer mountain walls. 

1. The New Day. Part 3. 29. The Unknown Way
2. The New Day. Part 4. 16. “Love Is Not Bond to Any Man”
3. The New Day. Part 4. 17. “He Knows Not the Path of Duty”
4. The Celestial Passion. Part 1. 4. The Master-Poets
5. The New Day. Part 3. 6. “Love Me Not, Love, for That I First Loved Thee”

Ella Wilcox The Sonnet ("Alone it stands in Poesy’s fair land")

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