ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XLIII. INSIDE OF KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
TAX not the royal Saint with vain expense, With ill-matched aims the Architect who planned– Albeit labouring for a scanty band Of white robed Scholars only–this immense And glorious Work of fine intelligence! Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore Of nicely-calculated less or more; So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, 10 Where light and shade repose, where music dwells Lingering–and wandering on as loth to die; Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality.