Trouble. A Sonnet
Charles H.
Williams
Williams, Charles H.
C. H. W. (poet; Once a Week)
C. H. W.
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Fralick
Kaitlyn
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Poet attribution: possibly by Charles H. Williams, whose pseudonym for periodical poetry in Once a Week in the 1860s was was C. H. W.
(AC)
#poetAttribution
Once a Week
5
1
16
247
“ For man is born to trouble as the sparks
font-size: 165%; letter-spacing: 0.05em; word-spacing: 0.3em;
font-family: gothic; margin-bottom: 0.4em;
font-size: 80%; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing:
0.05em; word-spacing: 0.25em; font-variant: small-caps; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;
margin-left: 5em;
margin-left: 3em;
margin-left: 1em;
margin-left: 2em;
text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 3em;
display: none;
display: inline;
display: block;
font-size: 1rem; width: 30em;
width: 12%; margin-top: 0.4em; margin-bottom: 0.4em;
Removed catRef and figure for decorative border, per AC, since this is not germane to the poem itself.
Set status to 'verified'.
Created pom_13769_incid_poem rendition to reset font-sizes.
Added useful rendition elements in anticipation of CSS reworking.
Updated repeating figDescs in Once a Week 1880 to remove mention of “typographic”—no longer
part of updated DVPP illustration protocols.
Re-organized change elements in descending date order.
Changed decorative border catRef to typographical.
Assigned dominant rhyme-scheme value to poem div using automated XSLT.
Set status to 'proofed'. Added missing rhyme label. Altered font size and spacing. Moved
long strings of CSS to the tagsDecl.
![]()
Trouble
.
A Sonnet
.
“ For man is born to trouble as the sparks
Fly upward ;” from the cradle to the grave
Life is one trouble to avoid its end !
And if a transient gleam of pleasure marks
Some happy hours upon life’s passing wave,
We hail it as a prisoner does a friend
Bringing assurance of a brighter sphere.
For we are captives to the power which gave
The breath of life to us ; and joys descend,
And holy light, and hopes that cast out fear,
From our eternal home beyond the skies—
Gifts all too often unacknowledged here !
Though troubled thought, like sparks, will upward rise,
And there still seek, and find, that rest the world denies.
C. H. W.