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

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LXIV.

WRITTEN AT BRISTOL IN THE SUMMER OF 1794.

HERE from the restless bed of lingering pain
    The languid sufferer seeks the tepid wave,
And feels returning health and hope again
    Disperse "the gathering shadows of the grave!"
And here romantic rocks that boldly swell,
    Fringed with green woods, or stain'd with veins of ore,
Call'd native Genius forth, whose Heaven-taught skill
    Charm'd the deep echos of the rifted shore.
But tepid waves, wild scenes, or summer air,
    Restore they palsied Fancy, woe-deprest?
Check they the torpid influence of Despair,
    Or bid warm Health re-animate the breast;
Where Hope's soft visions have no longer part,
And whose sad inmate is—a broken heart?