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The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum Poetry

Lady Jane Grey

Author: John Sterling
Source: "The Poetical Works of John Sterling"
Year: 1842
Found here.

There is an old and costly room of state,
With roof deep-groined of blazoned shields and flowers,
And arras rich with gold and silver weight,
Hangs round the walls, and shows green forest bowers.
And figures blent of giant, dwarf, and knight,
Of lady fair, and palfrey, hawk and hound,
Amid those leafy cells the gaze invite,
Invite yet mock, for leaves half close them round.
In order set are works of regal price,
Quaint carven chair and table, chest and lute;
And web of scarlet, black, and gold device,
Spread o'er the floor makes every footstep mute,
The windows' shafts and loops of branching stone
Are gemmed with panes of each imperial hue,
Where saint and angel from the stars new flown,
With streams of crystal splendor flood the view.
They fall with fondest brightness o'er the form
Of her who sits the chamber's lovely dame,
And her pale forehead in the light looks warm,
And all those colours round her whiteness flame.
Young is she, scarcely past from childhood's years,
With grave soft face, where thoughts and smiles may play,
And unalarmed by guilty aims or fears,
Serene as meadow-flowers may meet the day.
No guilty pang she knows, though many a dread
Hangs threatening o'er her in the conscious air,
And 'mid the beams from that bright casement shed,
A twinkling crown foreshows a near despair.
But Jane regards not auguries of ill,
Nor ev'n that sovran vision draws her eyes,
Which bent in contemplation smooth and still
Drink dews that make the heart devoutly wise.
She reads in Plato's page, and sphered with him
Sees dark Hymettus, sees Ilissus flow;
Through many an age's shadow broad and dim,
Lives back to where Athena's olives grow.
With marble stems whose summits leaves enwreathe,
The light and sculptured colonnade is there;
In silent forms the gods and heroes breathe,
And awe with tranquil eyes the empurpled air.
Before her spread the azure Grecian seas,
The city's towers and temples rise around,
And columned halls are blent with arching trees,
Where sages musing pace the sacred ground,
And there with look as silver pure and bright,
And calm, and clear, like some deep ocean bay,
Her cherished teacher walks in evening light,
With steps that mark his soul's unruffled sway.
With him she lives, and meditates, and loves.
And learns how nature, building up the mind,
Prepares the faith which wisdom best approves,
In One the immortal friend of mortal kind;
To whom all being tends, from whom proceeds,
Who is the only Source and Law of Good,
Benignant arbiter of earthly needs,
Felt, owned, revered, divined, not understood;
Who imaged in a thousand gods for man,.
And on ten thousand living things impressed,
Himself is hid where none his light may scan,
Yet ever present warms the longing breast;
A sun to which 'tis hard our eyes to raise!
Though shining round, it pours each beam of day,
In every drop lights up a mirrored blaze,
And lends each blade of grass a kindred ray;
Encircling Spirit known to human thought,
By Reason watching o'er its own domain,
By Truth severe to brooding Conscience taught,
By Aims which time would strive to bound in vain.
Such flight of soul was hers, and thus she rose
Above the mist and turmoil thickening round,
Breathed purer air that o'er Cephisus blows,
And culled the wreaths that on its banks abound.
Not long she knew this quiet. Loud the shout
Of tumult thickning on in heavy strain;
And murmured, roared, and echoed all about,
Breaks forth the dizzy cry, Long live Queen Jane!
Back falls the Chamber door; and lo! a crowd
Of Judge, and counsellor, prelate, knight and peer;
Swords, plumes, and jewels, fronts with victory proud,
And snow-white heads are bent her will to hear.
Some tears she sheds, she trembles, turns away,
Then yields her presence at her sire's command.
The volume falls abandoned where it lay
A moment past in her attentive hand.
The Queen, in robes of state and royal halls,
Glides trembling back with memory's swift career,
With inward voice upon the past she calls,
And wondering feels that she must learn to fear.
She thinks,—" O ! Teacher, gentle, vast, sublime,
Strange lesson this for one upheld by thee;
But thou hast help for man's most adverse time,
And in worst bondage aidest to be free.
"Yet while I look within me wisdom fails,
I seem all dark and weak, an erring child,
When most I need it least thy lore avails,
And Truth's pure brightness shows me all defiled."
Low drooped her brow, when trembling through the air
A sweet-voiced hymn was gently borne along;
Perhaps an angel's music warbled there,
Or human echoes of angelic song.
So soft, so full, so thrilling deep it spake,
It won the soul in seraph bliss to die,
And seemed at once her inward thirst to slake,
With joy, of heaven and tears of Calvary.
She felt her life a trembling, earthly spark,
Was mounting up to shine a star above,
And lucid thoughts came rippling through the dark,
In one mild flow of Faith, and Hope, and Love.
"Methinks, 0! Sage a nobler lore than thine,
More steadfast comfort gives and holier peace;
And I am fed by wisdom more divine
Than e'er inspired melodious tongues of Greece.
"On other shores, beneath more eastern skies,
Thy faith was once proclaimed from age to age,
Not sealed a treasure for the proudly wise,
But spread a people's common heritage;
"In saint and prophet burnt with keener flame
Than e'er illumed thy gracious soul's delight;
In children's words, in songs of ancient fame
Was known, ennobled many a festal rite,
"And all that Athens breathed of high and true,
With soaring thought and finely moulded speech,
In our dear Lord to Act and Being grew,
Whose Life was more than words could ever teach.
"A Heart that beat for every human wo,
A Choice in holiest purpose pure and strong,
A Truth, sole morning-Light of all below,
A Love triumphant over deadliest wrong.
"In Him thy God, O Plato, dwelt on earth,
An open Presence, clear of earthly ill;
The Life which drew from him its heavenly birth,
In all who seek renews his perfect Will.
"So have we Sufferings, so a Trust like His,
So large Repentance born with many a thro,
So zeal untired to better all that is,
And peace of spirit even here below.
"Then be it mine the Cross with him to bear,
And leave the flowery shades of Academe;
With him go mourning through the infected air
Of grief and sin, and drink his bitter stream.
"So clearness, meekness, and unfaltering might,
Ungained, though bravely sought, O ! sage, by thee,
Shall be my starry chaplet in the night,
And in the coming dawn my crown shall be.
"Quick changed the darkening hour; the reign was done;
The princely crowds were shrunk away or dead:
The prison closed in gloom, and hid the sun;
And sank in dust, the fair, the youthful head.
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