Louise Imogen Guiney (Луиза Имоджен Гвини)

In a Perpendicular Church

The slackened arches never lose their beauty of alarm;
The tall lines frown along the wall, like angels, sword in arm;
And where the vaults diverge, a grove with fancied snow o’erspread,
Goes light among a myriad panes, with dust upon her head.

England of old most innocent, whose flower of skill achieved
Failed quick as Lammas lilies, when thy hand no more believed,
What hast thou here, beloved but dead, held to thy childless heart?
Alas, thy human all of heaven: thine own and only Art.

Louise Imogen Guiney’s other poems:

  1. Undertones at Magdalen
  2. On Leaving Winchester
  3. On First Entering Westminster Abbey
  4. In the Reading-Room of the British Museum
  5. Columba and the Stork




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