Ye dull and loathly sisterhood forlorn! Why did the fabling soul of ancient song Build up a falsehood of such dreary scorn, As that to you our being should belong? Likening a life that feels so much of heaven, And so divinely sensible of joy, To a frail thread at your cold mandate riven, For hands so pale to weave and to destroy? Soul-deadening lore! that had long since its birth, When the strange perjury of ancient creed Jarr'd in full discord, - now our hearts are freed! And solemn reason dictates to the earth, Since that most perfect Law shone forth to bless, That hath no peer in moral loveliness! |