Charlotte Turner Smith
          
Elegiac sonnets. Volume 2 of 2
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SONG.

FROM THE FRENCH.

[Note:] SONG.
FROM THE FRENCH.
A free translation of a favourite French song,
"Un jour me demandoit hortense
"Ou se trouve le tendre amour?"

I.
"AH! say," the fair Louisa cried,
          "Say where the abode of Love is found?"
 Pervading nature, I replied,
          His influence spreads the world around.
 When Morning's arrowy beams arise,
          He sparkles in the enlivening ray,
 And blushes in the glowing skies
          When rosy Evening fades away.

II.
The Summer winds that gently blow,
          The flocks that bleat along the glades,
 The nightingale, that soft and low,
          With music fills the listening shades:

49

The murmurs of the silver surf
          All echo Love's enchanting notes,
 From Violets lurking in the turf,
          His balmy breath thro' ther floats.

III.
From perfumed flowers and dewy leaves
          Delicious scents he bids exhale,
 He smiles amid Autumnal sheaves,
          And clothes with green the grassy vale;
 But when that throne the God assumes
          Where his most powerful influence lies,
 'Tis on Louisa's cheek he blooms,
          And lightens from her radiant eyes!
 
 
 
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