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

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LXXIV.

THE WINTER NIGHT.

"SLEEP, that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,"
    Forsakes me, while the chill and sullen blast,
    As my sad soul recalls its sorrows past,
Seems like a summons bidding me prepare
For the last sleep of death—Murmuring I hear
    The hollow wind around the ancient towers,
While night and silence reign; and cold and drear
    The darkest gloom of Middle Winter lours;
But wherefore fear existence such as mine,
    To change for long and undisturb'd repose?
Ah! when this suffering being I resign
    And o'er my miseries the tomb shall close,
By her, whose loss in anguish I deplore,
I shall be laid, and feel that loss no more!