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Sonnet to J. M. K.

First printed in 1830, not in 1833.

This sonnet was addressed to John Mitchell Kemble, the well-known Editor of the 'Beowulf' and other Anglo-Saxon poems. He intended to go into the Church, but was never ordained, and devoted his life to early English studies. See memoir of him in 'Dict, of Nat. Biography'.

  My hope and heart is with thee--thou wilt be
  A latter Luther, and a soldier-priest
  To scare church-harpies from the master's feast;
  Our dusted velvets have much need of thee:
  Thou art no Sabbath-drawler of old saws,
  Distill'd from some worm-canker'd homily;
  But spurr'd at heart with fieriest energy
  To embattail and to wall about thy cause
  With iron-worded proof, hating to hark
  The humming of the drowsy pulpit-drone
  Half God's good sabbath, while the worn-out clerk
  Brow-beats his desk below. Thou from a throne
  Mounted in heaven wilt shoot into the dark
  Arrows of lightnings. I will stand and mark.

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