Читать книгу Spring Wild Flowers - Daniel Wilson - Страница 4

EDWARD.
A TALE OF THE REFORMATION.

Table of Contents

A simple tale of an old man's faith;

And a maid found faithful in love, to death,

By such trials as Holy Church sanctioneth:

'Tis an old tale hath been told before,

God grant our times have not things in store

Shall give us the like to tell once more.

Yet thanks to God that such things have been,

Since in martyr's faithfulness I ween

Faith's precursor of liberty is seen.

ARGUMENT. PART I.

Table of Contents

The introduction of the Poem, indicates the period of the Tale, depicting the uncertainty of men's minds in the transition state that precedeth change. The past unrolling before the Chronicler, he describeth the scene. An aged monk earnest in chase of truth, having sought vain solace in the legends and traditions of the Church, when satiated with the pleasures of the world, and jaded by conscience to the acknowledgment of virtue, while forsaking her allegiance; turneth his pursuit into the paths of science, and again abandoneth the earnest chase insatiate as before. In his vague search the old Monk stumbleth on the Scriptures, and findeth in the despised and forgotten manuscript, the treasure so long sought in vain; but striving to share it with others, he findeth his mission unhonoured, and the treasure, sought in long pain, and proved in gladness of heart, deemed but a vain illusion; yet are there a few whom the world hath not satisfied, and one, an Orphan Maid, twice desolate by death and separation, the yearnings of whose heart find their full solace in the boundless treasury of Truth.