Ecclesiastical Sonnets: XXI. Seclusion

Lance, shield, and sword relinquished—at his side
A Bead-roll, in his hand a clasped Book,
Or staff more harmless than a Shepherd’s crook,
The war-worn Chieftain quits the world—to hide
His thin autumnal locks where Monks abide
In cloistered privacy. But not to dwell
In soft repose he comes. Within his cell,
Round the decaying trunk of human pride,
At morn, and eve, and midnight’s silent hour,
Do penitential cogitations cling:
Like ivy, round some ancient elm, they twine
In grisly folds and strictures serpentine;
Yet, while they strangle without mercy, bring
For recompense their own perennial bower.