Sonnet On The Sonnet

To see the moment holds a madrigal,

To find some cloistered place, some hermitage For free devices, some deliberate cage Wherein to keep wild thoughts like birds in thrall;

To eat sweet honey and to taste black gall,

To fight with form, to wrestle and to rage,

Till at the last upon the conquered page The shadows of created Beauty fall.

This is the sonnet, this is all delight Of every flower that blows in every Spring,

And all desire of every desert place;

This is the joy that fills a cloudy night When bursting from her misty following,

A perfect moon wins to an empty space.