England and Yesterday

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>VII.<br/><small>A DECEMBER WALK.</small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Whithersoever cold and fair ye flow,</div> <div class="verse">Calm tides of moonlit midnight, bear my mind!</div> <div class="verse">Past Christchurch gate, with leafy frost entwined,</div> <div class="verse">And Merton in a huge tiara’s glow,</div> <div class="verse">And groves in bridal gossamers below</div> <div class="verse">Saint Mary’s armoured spire; and whence aligned</div> <div class="verse">In altered eminence for dawn to find,</div> <div class="verse">Sleep the droll Cæsars, hooded with the snow.</div> <div class="verse">White sacraments of weather, shine on me!</div> <div class="verse">Upbear my footfall, and my fancy sift,</div> <div class="verse">Lest either blemish an ensainted ground</div> <div class="verse">Spread so with childhood. Bid with me, outbound,</div> <div class="verse">On recollected wing mine angel drift</div> <div class="verse">Across new spheres of immortality.</div> </div></div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />