reverent

So through the city I wander and question, unsatisfied ever,

Reverent so I accept, doubtful because I revere.

To charm, I call it my defect;

And so my thought, with reverent fear

To err by doltish disrespect,

All melted into tears like snow;

The mistress of my reverent thought,

Whose praise was all I ask’d of fame,

Give not this darling child of Thine

To care less reverent than mine!'

And, as true faith was in my word,

'Shall I, the gnat which dances in thy ray,

Dare to be reverent? Therefore dare I say,

I cannot guess the good that I desire;

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,

Of its own arduous fulness reverent:

Carve it in ivory or in ebony,

if ever has Dante's youthful love been approached

and treated in a more reverent spirit. <<I have left

O maister dere and fader reverent,

My maister Chaucer, flour of eloquence,