The wise do send their hearts before them to

   Dear blessed Heaven, despite the veil between;

   The foolish nurse their hearts within the screen

Of this familiar world, where all we do

Or have is old, for there is nothing new;

   Yet elder far that world we have not seen;

   God's presence antedates what else hath been:

Many the foolish seem, the wise seem few.

Of foolishest fond folly of a heart

   Divided, neither here nor there at rest!

   That hankers after heaven, but clings to earth;

      That neither here nor there knows thorough

mirth,

Half-choosing, wholly missing, the good part:-

   Oh fool amongst the foolish, in thy quest.

Christina Rossetti    Sonnet 24