| | Elegiac sonnets. Volume 1 of 2
contents
|
previous
|
next
WRITTEN IN THE CHURCH YARD AT MIDDLETON
IN SUSSEX.
|
PRESS'D by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides,
While the loud equinox its power combines,
The sea no more its swelling surge confines,
But o'er the shrinking land sublimely rides.
The wild blast, rising from the Western cave,
Drives the huge billows from their heaving bed;
Tears from their grassy tombs the village dead, [Note:] SONNET XLIV.
Line 7.
Middleton is a village on the margin of the sea in Suffex, containing only two or three houses. There were formerly several acres of ground between its small church and the sea; which now, by its continual encroachments, approaches within a few feet of this half ruined and humble edifice. The wall, which one surrounded the church-yard, is entirely swept away, many of the graves broken up, and the remains of bodies interred washed into the sea: whence human bones are found among the sand and shingles on the shore.
|
And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave!
With shells and sea-weed mingled, on the the shore
Lo! their bones whiten in the frequent wave;
But vain to them the winds and waters rave;
They hear the warring elements no more:
While I am doom'd by life's long storm opprest,
To gaze with envy, on their gloomy rest.
contents
|
previous
|
next |
