What is a gift bestowed on man, Unless he spreads abroad its light And turns its might To aid the right And strives to do the best he can? 

 What matters it if all your toil Thankless for ever must remain? When by your pain One soul will gain Somewhat to calm its mortal coil. 

 

 

   Sonnets 

 

 Glastonbury 

 Beacon of Christian truth! across the years Thy flame undying glows in Faith's clear sight, As once the Holy Grail's effulgence bright Shone on the pure in heart, the Saints' compeers, Who knew no more life's bitterness and fears But dwelt thenceforth upon a nobler height, Rapt in the radiance of Redemption's light That still to the elect of God appears. Each Christmas sees, before thy ancient shrine, Its sacred thorn burst into glorious flower, Of Heaven's immortal life a constant sign, Shown to mankind in graciousness benign, To make eternal with enlightening power The revelation of a truth divine. 

 

 

 Galileo 

 The medieval pomp and civic pride Which once made Pisa famous, long have lain Forgotten with her pageants brief and vain That flashed inconstant on the Arno's tide. But, toned to softened hues, her walls abide, Enclosing baptistery, tower, and fane Wherein yet swings the lamp with brazen chain That marked the pendulum's time-measured stride And though the centuries, in lengthening roll, Show ever fainter through perspective time The fame depicted in the mouldering scroll, They cannot dim the shining aureole Around Galileo's name. Each hourly chime Proclaims the law that swung the girandole. 

 

 

 Stratford-on-Avon 

 The hushed repose of some fair temple's shade Falls on the pilgrim when he treads the ways Where first the world to Shakespeare's childish gaze Disclosed its wonders when his footsteps strayed; Where, fired with love, he roamed the forest glade, Storing clear memories for other days; And where, at last, acclaimed and crowned with bays, He 

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