Elegiac sonnets. Volume 1 of 2  contents   |   previous   |   next SONNET XLVI. WRITTEN AT PENSHURST, IN AUTUMN 1788. YE Towers sublime, deserted now and drear,          Ye woods, deep sighing to the hollow blast, The musing wanderer loves to linger near,          While History points to all your glories past: And startling from their haunts the timid deer,          To trace the walks obscur'd by matted fern,          Which Waller's soothing lyre were wont to hear,          But where now clamours the discordant heron! [Note:] SONNET XLVI. Line 8. "But where now clamours the discordant heron." In the park at Penshurst is an heronry. The house is at present uninhabited, and the windows of the galleries and other rooms, in which there are many invaluable pictures, are never opened but when strangers visit it. The spoiling hand of Time may overturn          These lofty battlements, and quite deface The fading canvas whence we love to learn          Sydney's keen look, and Sacharissa's grace; [Note:] SONNET XLVI. Line 12. Algernon Sidney. But fame and beauty still defy decay, Sav'd by the historic page the poet's tender lay!  contents   |   previous   |   next		HOME INTRODUCTION