Sonnet VIII: To My Brothers

"CANTO I.     Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave     A paradise for a sect; the savage, too,     From forth the loftiest fashion of h"

"Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there     Among the bushes half leafless, and dry;     The stars look very cold about the sky,     A"

"Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs     Be echoed swiftly through that ivory shell     Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart; so well"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"