Charlotte Smith

“ Pity's own Otway I methinks could meet,
And hear his deep sighs swell the sadden'd wind!
O Melancholy!—such thy magic power,
That to the soul these dreams are often sweet,
And sooth the pensive visionary mind! ”

“ And now another poet helps to raise
Thy glory high—the poet of the Mine!
Whose brilliant talents are his smallest praise:
And who, to all that genius can impart,
Adds the cool head, and the unblemish'd heart! ”

“ The gayer world that moves round George the Third.
Nor thy soft influence will the train refuse,
Who court in distant shades the modest Muse,
Tho' in a form more pure and more refined,
Thy soothing spirit meets the letter'd mind.
Not Death itself thine empire can destroy ”

“ Is all the little luxury he knows:
And by the same dear hands are softly spread,
The chamois' velvet spoil that forms the bed,
Where in her arms he finds repose.
But absent from the calm abode,
Dark thunder gathers round his road;
Wild raves the wind, the arrowy lightnings flash,
Returning quick the murmuring rocks among,
His faint heart trembling as he winds along ”

“ Where osprays, cormorants, and sea-mews rest;
Even in a scene so desolate and rude
I could with thee for months and years be blest;
And of thy tenderness and love possest,
Find all my world in this wild solitude! ”

“ I go uncall'd—to mercy and to heaven!
O thou! to save whose peace I now depart,
Will thy soft mind thy poor lost friend deplore,
When worms shall feed on this devoted heart,
Where even thy image shall be found no more? ”

“ The glowing dyes that dress the flowery race,
Scented and colour'd by a hand divine!
Ah! not less vainly would the Muse pretend
On her weak lyre, to sing the native grace
And native goodness of a soul like thine! ”

“ For high in Fame's bright fane has Judgment placed
The laurel wreath Serena's poet won,
Which, woven with myrtles by the hands of Taste,
The Muse decreed for this her favorite son.
And those immortal leaves his temples shade,
Whose fair, eternal verdure—shall not fade! ”

“ But thirst and hunger on the rocks repine;
When, from some promontory's fearful brow,
Sun after sun he hopeless sees decline
In the broad shipless sea—perhaps may know
Such heartless pain, such blank despair as mine! ”

“ Float in light vision round my aching head!
Secure of all thy blessings, partial Power!
On his hard bed the peasant throws him down;
And the poor sea-boy, in the rudest hour,
Enjoys thee more than he who wears a crown. ”

“ Arun! to thee will other praise belong;
Dear to the lover's and the mourner's heart,
And ever sacred to the sons of song!
Thy banks romantic hopeless Love shall seek,
Where o'er the rocks the mantling bindwith flaunts ”

“ The evening shades their gather'd darkness fling,
While, by the lingering light, I scarce discern
The shrieking night-jar sail on heavy wing.
Ah! yet a little——and propitious Spring
Crown'd with fresh flowers shall wake the woodland strain;
But no gay change revolving seasons bring
To call forth pleasure from the soul of pain! ”

“ Let youth's warm tide my veins inflame,
Or sixty winters chill my blood:
Tho' my fond soul to heaven were flown,
Or tho' on earth 'tis doom'd to pine,
Prisoner or free—obscure or known,
My heart, O Laura! still is thine. ”

“ So charm'd my way with Friendship and the Muse.
But darker now grows life's unhappy day,
Dark with new clouds of evil yet to come,
Her pencil sickening Fancy throws away,
And weary Hope reclines upon the tomb ”

“ Such transient respite from the ills I bear!
Would I could taste, like this unthinking hind,
A sweet forgetfulness of human care,
Till the last sleep these weary eyes shall close,
And Death receive me to his long repose. ”

“ Seem to conceal some hideous form beneath;
And every hollow blast that shakes the wood,
Speaks to his trembling heart of woe and death.
With horror fraught, and desolate dismay,
On such a wanderer falls the starless night ”

“ Which scarce I trust to pitying Friendship's ears!
Amidst thy wild-woods, and untrodden glades,
No sounds but those of melancholy move;
And the low winds that die among thy shades,
Seem like soft Pity's sighs for hopeless love! ”

“ May fancied pain and fancied pleasure fly,
And I, as from me all thy dreams depart,
Be to my wayward destiny subdued:
Nor seek perfection with a poet's eye,
Nor suffer anguish with a poet's heart! ”

“ Gives me the wishes of my soul to see;
Tears of fond pity fill thy soften'd eyes:
In heavenly harmony—our hearts agree.
Alas! these joys are mine in dreams alone,
When cruel Reason abdicates her throne! ”

“ Ah! poor Humanity! so frail, so fair,
Are the fond visions of thy early day,
Till tyrant Passion and corrosive Care,
Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!
Another May new buds and flowers shall bring;
Ah! why has happiness——no second spring? ”

“ The first-born violets of the year shall spring;
And in thy hazles, bending o'er the tide,
The earliest nightingale delight to sing:
While kindred spirits, pitying, shall relate
Thy Otway's sorrows, and lament his fate! ”

“ Even in the hour that should have made thee blest.
Light lies the turf upon thy virgin breast;
And lingering here, to Love and Sorrow true,
The youth who once thy simple heart possest
Shall mingle tears with April's early dew ”

“ Deluded Fancy heard in every grove,
Bidding this tender, trusting heart, rejoice
In the bright prospect of unfailing love:
Tho' lost to me—still may thy smile serene
Bless the dear lord of this regretted scene. ”

“ While free and sportive they enjoy to-day,
'Content and careless of to-morrow's fare!'
O happy age! when Hope's unclouded ray
Lights their green path, and prompts their simple mirth;
Ere yet they feel the thorns that lurking lay,
To wound the wretched pilgrims of the earth ”

“ 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 ”

“ As to the sea your limpid waves you bear,
Can you one kind Lethean cup bestow,
To drink a long oblivion to my care?
Ah! no!——when all, e'en Hope's last ray is gone,
There's no oblivion——but in death alone! ”

“ Not so the sufferer feels, who, o'er the waste
Of joyless life, is destin'd to deplore
Fond love forgotten, tender friendship past,
Which, once extinguish'd, can revive no more!
O'er the blank void he looks with hopeless pain ”

“ To guide the crayon, or to touch the lyre?
Ah me!——the sister Muses still require
A spirit free from all intrusive fears,
Nor will they deign to wipe away the tears
Of vain regret, that dim their sacred fire. ”

“ To weave fantastic garlands for my head:
But far, far happier is the lot of those
Who never learn'd her dear delusive art;
Which, while it decks the head with many a rose,
Reserves the thorn, to fester in the heart. ”

“ The sighing summer-wind forgets to blow.
As sinks the day-star in the rosy West,
The silent wave, with rich reflection glows:
Alas! can tranquil nature give me rest,
Or scenes of beauty sooth me to repose? ”

“ These lofty battlements, and quite deface
The fading canvass whence we love to learn
Sydney's keen look, and Sacharissa's grace;
But fame and beauty still defy decay,
Saved by the historic page——the poet's tender lay! ”

“ Were of a goddess——not a mortal maid;
Yet tho' thy charms, thy heavenly charms should fade,
My heart, my tender heart could not escape;
Nor cure for me in time or change be found:
The shaft extracted does not cure the wound! ”

“ By the low cradles thou delight'st to sit
Of sleeping infants——watching the soft breath,
And bidding the sweet slumberers easy lie;
Or sometimes hanging o'er the bed of death,
Where the poor languid sufferer——hopes to die. ”

“ Like the young Hours that lead the tender Year;
Enchantress, come! and charm my cares to rest:——
Alas! the flatterer flies, and will not hear!
A prey to fear, anxiety, and pain,
Must I a sad existence still deplore? ”

“ And hears, with ear appall'd, the impetuous surge
Beneath him thunder!—So, with heart oppress'd,
Alone, reluctant, desolate, and slow,
By Friendship's cheering radiance now unblest,
Along Life's rudest path I seem to go ”

“ Glazed are his eyes—convulsed his hands,
O'erwhelming anguish checks his labouring breath;
Crush'd by despair's intolerable weight,
Frantic he seeks the mountain's giddiest height,
And headlong seeks relief in death! ”

“ And Love's own thornless roses bind your brow;
And when—long hence—to happier worlds you go,
Your beauteous race shall be what you are now!
And future Nevills thro' long ages shine,
With hearts as good, and forms as fair as thine! ”

“ On my weak bosom—and how little worth
Is the false fleeting meteor, Happiness,
That still misleads the wanderers of the earth!
Strengthen'd by thee, this heart shall cease to melt
O'er ills that poor Humanity must bear ”

“ Graced with the lovely letters of her name,
Henceforth be sacred to my love and me!
Tho' the tall elm, the oak, and darker pine,
With broader arms, may noon's fierce ardors break,
To shelter me, and her I love, be thine ”

“ TO THE NORTH STAR.
TO thy bright beams I turn my swimming eyes,
Fair, fav'rite planet! which in happier days
Saw my young hopes, ah, faithless hopes!—arise,
And on my passion shed propitious rays! ”

“ Hangs o'er the waters of the restless main.
In deep depression sunk, the enfeebled mind
Will to the deaf cold elements complain,
And tell the embosom'd grief, however vain,
To sullen surges and the viewless wind. ”

“ Like the poor mariner, methinks, I stand,
Cast on a rock; who sees the distant land
From whence no succour comes—or comes too late.
Faint and more faint are heard his feeble cries,
'Till in the rising tide the exhausted sufferer dies. ”

“ And while a tempest is gathering, the unfortunate young woman comes thither; and courting the same death as had robbed her of her lover, she awaits its violence, and is at length overwhelmed by the waves. ”

“ ELEGY.
'DARK gathering clouds involve the threatening skies,
'The sea heaves conscious of the impending gloom,
'Deep, hollow murmurs from the cliffs arise;
'They come!—the Spirits of the Tempest come! ”

“ And you, ye conscious scenes, are still the same!
While busy Memory still delights to dwell
On all the charms these bitter tears deplore,
And with a trembling hand describes too well
The angel form I shall behold no more! ”

“ SONNET XXVIII.
TO FRIENDSHIP.
O THOU! whose name too often is profaned;
Whose charms celestial few have hearts to feel!
Unknown to Folly—and by Pride disdain'd!
—To thy soft solace may my sorrows steal! ”

“ The faithful friend with falt'ring step shall glide,
Tributes of fond regret by stealth to pay,
And sigh o'er the unhappy suicide!
And sometimes, when the sun with parting rays
Gilds the long grass that hides my silent bed. ”