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

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LXXII.

TO THE MORNING STAR
WRITTEN NEAR THE SEA.

THEE! lucid arbiter 'twixt day and night,
    The Seaman greets, as on the Ocean stream
    Reflected, thy precursive friendly beam
Points out the long-sought haven to his sight.

Watching for thee, the lover's ardent eyes
    Turn to the eastern hills; and as above
Thy brilliance trembles, hails the lights that rise
    To guide his footsteps to expecting love!

I mark thee too, as night's dark clouds retire,
    And thy bright radiance glances on the sea;
But never more shall thy heraldic fire
    Speak of approaching morn with joy to me!
Quench'd in the gloom of death that heavenly ray
Once lent to light me on my thorny way!