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In An Illuminated Missal[1]

By Charles Kingsley

Topics: classic

I would have loved:    there are no mates in heaven;     I would be great:    there is no pride in heaven;     I would have sung, as doth the nightingale     The summer's night beneath the moone pale,     But Saintes hymnes alone in heaven prevail.     My love, my song, my skill, my high intent,     Have I within this seely book y-pent:     And all that beauty which from every part     I treasured still alway within mine heart,     Whether of form or face angelical,     Or herb or flower, or lofty cathedral,     Upon these sheets below doth lie y-spred,     In quaint devices deftly blazoned.          Lord, in this tome to thee I sanctify          The sinful fruits of worldly fantasy.     1839.

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Author:Charles Kingsley

"I would have loved:    there are no mates in heave..." by Charles Kingsley

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Charles Kingsley

About Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) was an English novelist, historian, and poet whose poem "The Three Fishers" and children's book "The Water-Babies" are Victorian classics. He was also a social reformer and advocate for "Christian Socialism."

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