8 MAY 1869, Page 16

POETRY.

SONNET.

FASHIONABLE CHUROU.—MAY, 1869.

Tnv. air is faint, yet still the crowds press in With stir of silks and under-flow of talk That falls from lips of ladies as they walk, Ere yet the dainty service doth begin :

Ah me ! the very organ's glorious din

Is tuned to pliant trimness in its place.

And over all a sweet melodious grace Floats with the incense-stream good souls to win !

0 God, that spaks't of old from Sinai's brow !

And Thou that laids't the tempest with a word !

Is this Thy worship? Come amongst us now With all Thy thunders, if Thou woulds't be heard.

So tyrannous is this weight of pageantry, Almost, we cry, "Give back Gethsemane !"