arbitrary yet expressive limitations of a sonnet.[A]

One of the main reasons why the Nawab's friends have urged the
publication of his Sonnets, is that despite occasional imperfections (of
which he himself is conscious), they form a consistent whole, and in
their spirit and sentiment they are akin to some of the most noble
utterances of the great minds and hearts whose words have been like
torches to show what heights a strong aspiring soul can climb.

"_The Will is the master. Imagination the tool, and the body the plastic
material_," said a famous physician, who was also a practical man of the
world;--and the poet who identifies his will and imagination with the
eternal truths, who looks up to the stars instead of down into the mud,
may always, even in his weariest hours, cheer himself by mental
companionship with the other resolute souls whose pens have been used as
swords in the service of Divine Beauty.

Of all the most famous writers of Sonnets, it is Michelangelo whose
words come back most vividly to memory as we read the Nawab's
expressions of faith.

"_Love wakes the soul and gives it wings to fly_."


"_All beauty that to human sight is given
Is but the shadow, if we rightly see,
Of Him from Whom man's spirit issueth_."


"_As heat from fire, my love from the ideal