Romantic Poetry WebQuest
Joanna Baillie (1762-1851)
"Sonnet"
1. A VOLANT tribe
of bards on earth are found,
2. Who, while the flatt'ring zephyrs round them play,
3. On "coignes of vantage" hang their nests of clay,
4. Work cunningly devis'd, and seeming sound;
5. But quickly from its airy hold unbound
6. By its own weight, or wash'd, or blown away
7. With silent imperceptible decay.
8. If man must build, admit him to thy ground,
9. O Truth!--to work within the eternal ring,
10. When the stars shine, or while day's purple eye
11. Is gently closing with the flowers of spring;
12. When even the motion of an angel's wing
13. Would interrupt the intense tranquillity
14. Of silent hills, and more than silent sky.