Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Irae Sung in the Sistine Chapel
Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Irae Sung in the Sistine Chapel - form Summary
A Sonnet of Gentle Longing
Wilde shapes a sonnet-length prayer that rejects the terrifying tones of the Dies Irae in favor of intimate, pastoral images. The speaker asks God to reveal Himself not through wrath but through lilies, birds, vineyards and harvest-time scenes, linking divine presence to gentle, domestic signs. The poem’s petitionary voice and closed sonnet form compress longing and patience into a single appeal for a kinder, more familiar revelation of the divine.
Read Complete AnalysesNay, Lord, not thus! white lilies in the spring, Sad olive-groves, or silver-breasted dove, Teach me more clearly of Thy life and love Than terrors of red flame and thundering. The hillside vines dear memories of Thee bring: A bird at evening flying to its nest Tells me of One who had no place of rest: I think it is of Thee the sparrows sing. Come rather on some autumn afternoon, When red and brown are burnished on the leaves, And the fields echo to the gleaner's song, Come when the splendid fulness of the moon Looks down upon the rows of golden sheaves, And reap Thy harvest: we have waited long.
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