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

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LXXXVIII.

NEPENTHE.

OH! for imperial Polydamna's art,
    Which to bright Helen was in Egypt taught,
    To mix with magic power the oblivious draught
Of force to staunch the bleeding of the heart,
And to Care's wan and hollow cheek impart
    The smile of happy youth, uncursed with thought.
Potent indeed the charm that could appease
    Affection's ceaseless anguish, doom'd to weep
O'er the cold grave; or yield even transient ease
    By soothing busy Memory to sleep!
—Around me those who surely must have tried
    Some charm of equal power, I daily see,
But still to me Oblivion is denied,
    There's no Nepenthe, now, on earth for me.