“Four Fiery Steeds Impatient Of The Rein”

Composed 1835.--Published 1835

[Suggested on the road between Preston and Lancaster where it first gives a view of the Lake country, and composed on the same day, on the roof of the coach.--I.F.]

One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”--ED.

Four fiery steeds impatient of the rein Whirled us o’er sunless ground beneath a sky As void of sunshine, when, from that wide plain, Clear tops of far-off mountains we descry, Like a Sierra of cerulean Spain, All light and lustre. Did no heart reply? Yes, there was One;--for One, asunder fly The thousand links of that ethereal chain; And green vales open out, with grove and field, And the fair front of many a happy Home; Such tempting spots as into vision come While Soldiers, weary of the arms they wield And sick at heart of strifeful Christendom, Gaze on the moon by parting clouds revealed.

1837.

While Soldiers, of the weapons that they wield Weary, and sick of strifeful …

1835.