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Elegy
Written at the Sea-side, and Addressed to Miss Honora Sneyd
I write, Honora, on the sparkling sand!-
The envious waves forbid the trace to stay:
Honora’s name again adorns the strand!
Again the waters bear their prize away!
So Nature wrote her charms upon thy face,
The cheek’s light bloom, the lip’s envermeil’d dye,
And every gay, and every witching grace,
That Youth’s warm hours, and Beauty’s stores supply.
But Time’s stern tide, with cold Oblivion’s wave,
Shall soon dissolve each fair, each fading charm;
E’en Nature’s self, so powerful, cannot save
Her own rich gifts from this o’erwhelming harm.
Love and the Muse can boast superior power,
Indelible the letters they shall frame;
They yield to no inevitable hour,
But will on lasting tablets write thy name.
Sonnet XII
Chlll’d by unkind HONORA’s alter’d eye,
“Why droops my heart with pining woe forlorn,”
Thankless for much of good?-what thousands, born
To ceaseless toll beneath this wintry sky,
Or to brave deathful oceans surging high,
Or fell Disease’s fever’d rage to mourn,
How blest to them would seem my destiny!
How dear the comforts my rash sorrows scorn!-
Affection is repaid by causeless hate!
A plighted love is changed to cold disdain!
Yet suffer not thy wrongs to shroud thy fate,
But turn, my soul, to blessings which remain;
And let this truth the wise resolve create,
The Heart estranged no anguish can regain.
Sonnet XIII
Thou child of Night and Silence, balmy Sleep,
Shed thy soft poppies on my aching brow!
And charm to rest the thoughts of whence, or how
Vanish’d that prlz’d Affection, wont to keep
Each grief of mine from rankling into woe.
Then stern Misfortune from her bended bow
Loos’d the dire strings;-and Care, and anxious Dread
From my cheer’d heart, on sullen pinion fled.
But now, the spell dissolv’d, th’ enchantress gone,
Ceaseless those cruel fiends infest my day,
And sunny hours but light them to their prey.
Then welcome midnight shades, when th wish’d boon
May in oblivious dews my eye-lids steep,
Thou child of Night and Silence, balmy Sleep!
SONNET XIX
Farewell, false Friend!-our scenes of kindness close!
To cordial looks, to sunny smiles farewell!
To sweet consolings, that can grief expel,
And every joy soft sympathy bestows!
For alter’d looks, where truth no longer glows,
Thou hast prepared my heart;-and it was well
To bid thy pen th’ unlook’d-for story tell,
Falsehood avow’d, that shame, nor sorrow knows.
O! when we meet,-(to meet we’re destin’d, try
To avoid it as thou may’st) on either brow,
Nor in the stealing consciousness of eye,
Be seen the slightest trace of what, or how
We once were to each other;-nor one sigh
Flatter with weak regret a broken vow!
To the Right Honourable Lady Eleanor Butler
With the Same Present
Thou, who with firm, free step, as life arose,
Led thy loved friend where sacred Deva flows,
On Wisdom’s cloudless sun with thee to gaze,
And build your eyrie on that rocky maze;
Ah, ELEANORA! wilt thou gently deign
To bid these nets the tribute lines contain,
When Virtue, Genius, Rank, and Wealth, combine,
To pay ow’d homage at so pure a shrine?
And O! when kindling with the lovely theme,
The blest reality of Hope’s fond dream,
Friendship, that bliss unshar’d disdains to know,
Nor sees, nor feels one unpartaken woe;
When for such worth, in each exalted mind,
Resolv’d as man, and more than woman kind,
Their warm admirers ask a length of years,
Unchill’d by terror, and unstain’d by tears,
Then may the fervent benedictions lie!
And long, long hence meet ELEANORA’S eye,
While with her ZARA’S it shall frequent rove
The treasur’d records of esteem, and love!
