Good afternoon, all! Today’s sonnet is by Alice Meynell, a British poet who lived from 1847-1922. This poem, “Renouncement,” is in traditional Petrarchan form and captures the bridge between love and religion for Alice, as she recuperated from illness and pondered life in the Catholic Church.

Without further ado… Renouncement, by Alice Meynell.

Renouncement

I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,
I shun the thought that lurks in all delight–
The thought of thee–and in the blue Heaven’s height,
And in the sweetest passage of a song.
Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng
This breast, the thought of thee waits, hidden yet bright;
But it must never, never come in sight;
I must stop short of thee the whole day long.
But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,
When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,
And all my bonds I needs must loose apart,
Must doff my will as raiment laid away,–
With the first dream that comes with the first sleep
I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.