Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Volume 1, The Ninth Edition/Sonnet LIV

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LIV.

THE SLEEPING WOODMAN.

WRITTEN IN APRIL 1790.

YE copses wild, where April bids arise
    The vernal grasses, and the early flowers;
My soul depress'd—from human converse flies
    To the lone shelter of your pathless bowers.

Lo!—where the Woodman, with his toil oppress'd,
    His careless head on bark and moss reclined,
    Lull'd by the song of birds, the murmuring wind,
Has sunk to calm tho' momentary rest.

Ah! would 'twere mine in Spring's green lap to find
    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.