Charlotte Turner Smith
          
Elegiac sonnets. Volume 2 of 2
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VERSES

ON THE DEATH OF THE SAME LADY, WRITTEN
IN SEPTEMBER 1794.
LIKE a poor ghost the night I seek;
         Its hollow winds repeat my sighs;
The cold dews mingle on my cheek
         With tears that wander from mine eyes.
The thorns that still my couch molest,
         Have robb'd these heavy eyes of sleep;
But tho' deprived of tranquil rest,
         I here at least am free to weep.


75

Twelve times the moon, the rises red
         O'er yon tall wood of shadowy pine,
Has fill'd her orb, since low was laid
         My Harriet! that sweet form of thine!
While each sad month, as flow it past,
         Brought some new sorrow to deplore;
Some grief more poignant than the last,
         But thou can'st calm those griefs no more.
No more thy friendship sooths to rest
         This wearied spirit tempst-tost;
The cares that weigh upon my breast
         Are doubly felt since thou art lost.


76

Bright visions of ideal grace
         That the young poet's dreams inflame,
Were not more lovely than thy face;
         Were not more perfect than thy frame.
Wit, that no sufferings could impair,
         Was thine, and thine those mental powers
Of force to chase the fiends that tear
         From Fancy's hands her budding flowers.
O'er what, my angel friend, thou wert,
         Dejected Memory loves to mourn;
Regretting still that tender heart,
         Now withering in a distant urn!


77

But ere that wood of shadowy pine
         Twelve times shall yon full orb behold,
This sickening heart, that bleeds for thine,
         My Harriet! — may like thine be cold!
 
 
 
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