Explore "In an Illuminated Missal" by Charles Kingsley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I would have loved: there are no mates in heaven; / I would be great: there is no pride in heaven; / I would have sung, as doth the nightingale / The summer's night beneath the moone pale, / But Saintes hymnes alone in heaven prevail.
My love, my song, my skill, my high intent, / Have I within this seely book y-pent: / And all that beauty which from every part / I treasured still alway within mine heart, / Whether of form or face angelical, / Or herb or flower, or lofty cathedral, / Upon these sheets below doth lie y-spred, / In quaint devices deftly blazoned.
Lord, in this tome to thee I sanctify / The sinful fruits of worldly fantasy.
1839.