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

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LXVIII.

WRITTEN AT EXMOUTH, MIDSUMMER, 1795.

FALL, dews of Heaven, upon my burning breast,
    Bathe with cool drops these ever-streaming eyes,
Ye gentle Winds, that fan the balmy West,
    With the soft rippling tide of morning rise,
And calm my bursting heart, as here I keep
    The vigil of the wretched!—Now away
Fade the pale stars, as wavering o'er the deep
    Soft rosy tints announce another day,
The day of Middle Summer!—Ah! in vain
    To those who mourn like me, does radiant June
Lead on her fragrant hours; for hopeless pain
    Darkens with sullen clouds the Sun of Noon,
And veil'd in shadows Nature's face appears
To hearts o'erwhelm'd with grief, to eyes suffused with tears.