Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Volume 2, The Second Edition/Sonnet LXII

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LXII.

WRITTEN ON PASSING BY MOON-LIGHT THROUGH.
A VILLAGE, WHILE THE GROUND WAS
COVERED WITH SNOW.

WHILE thus I wander, cheerless and unblest,
    And find in change of place but change of pain;
In tranquil sleep the village labourers rest,
    And taste that quiet I pursue in vain!
Hush'd is the hamlet now, and faintly gleam
    The dying embers, from the casement low
Of the thatch'd cottage; while the Moon's wan beam
    Lends a new lustre to the dazzling snow.
O'er the cold waste, amid the freezing night,
    Scarce heeding whither, desolate I stray;
For me, pale Eye of Evening, thy soft light
    Leads to no happy home; my weary way
Ends but in sad vicissitudes of care:
I only fly from doubt—to meet despair!