Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Selected Sonnets. II. The Alp Rose

Henry Ellison (1811–1880)

HAST Thou not bade the Alp Rose bloom to Thee

All-bounteous God! though mortal foot has rare

Or never trod the eternal snows, which there

Worship Thee silently; nor curious eye

Sought in the wilderness Thy testimony?

Let us not idly deem that aught in air

Or earth is barren beauty, so it bear

A witness unto Thee; ’tis hallowed by

That thought, and has a moral beauty far

Beyond the pomp of thrones! That lone flower might

Emblem true piety; which, like a star,

Dwells ’mid a privacy of modest light,

Blessing unseen, unnoticed ’mid the glare;

Her sole reward, the bliss of acting right.