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Sonnets and canzonets

Alcott, Amos Bronson (1799-1888)

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PROEM.
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PART I.
 1. 
[I. Auspicious morn, com'st opportune, unbought?]
 2. 
[II. Ah! why so brief the visit, short his stay?]
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[III. Not all the brilliant beauties I have seen]
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[IV. The April rains are past, the frosts austere]
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[V. Most precious leaves the mail delights to bring]
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[VI. 'T is but a half-hour's walk the Mill-Dam o'er]
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[VII. The morning's clear, the sky without a frown]
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[VIII. Mean are all titles of nobility]
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[IX. Now I no longer wait my love to tell]
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[X. Unconquerable and inviolate]
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[XI. Ancestral tendencies far down descend]
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[XII. Hither, the gray and shapely church beside]
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[XIII. My Lady reads, with judgment and good taste]
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[XIV. Not Wordsworth's genius, Pestalozzi's love]
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[XV. Daughter, beloved of all, thy tender eye]
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[XVI. When I remember with what buoyant heart]
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[XVII. 'T was not permitted thee the Fates to please]
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XVIII. LOVE'S MORROW.
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[XIX. O Death! thou utterest deeper speech]
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[XX. Voyager across the seas]
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[XXI. Dear Heart! if aught to human love I've owed]
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[XXII. Calm vale of comfort, peace, and industry]
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PART II.
 1. 
[I. In Youth's glad morning, when the rising East]
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[II. My thought revives at utterance of thy name]
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[III. Christian beloved! devoid of art and wile]
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[IV. Channing! my Mentor whilst my thought was young]
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[V. Daughter of Memory! who her watch doth keep]
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[VI. Misfortune to have lived not knowing thee]
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[VII. Hierophant, and lyrist of the soul]
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[VIII. Pleased, I recall those hours, so fair and free]
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[IX. Dear Lady! oft I meditate on thee]
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[X. Thou, Sibyl rapt! whose sympathetic soul]
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[XI. Priest of the gladsome tidings, old and new]
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[XII. Interpreter of the Pure Reason's laws]
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[XIII. Who nearer Nature's life would truly come]
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[XIV. Much do they wrong our Henry, wise and kind]
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[XV. Whilst from the cloistered schools rushed forth in view]
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[XVI. Bright visions of my sprightlier youthful days]
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[XVII. Sweet saint! whose rising dawned upon the sight]
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[XVIII. Adventurous mariner! in whose gray skiff]
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[XIX. Romancer, far more coy than that coy sex]
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[XX. Still held in sweet remembrance thou, my friend]
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[XXI. Poet of the Pulpit, whose full-chorded lyre]
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[XXII. People's Attorney, servant of the Right]
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[XXIII. 'T was when the land was struggling to break free]
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[XXIV. Bold Saint, thou firm believer in the Cross]
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[XXV. Nobly censorious of our transient age]
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[XXVI. Freedom's first champion in our fettered land]
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[XXVII. O Thou, my country, ope thine eyes]

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51

[V. Most precious leaves the mail delights to bring]

Most precious leaves the mail delights to bring,
All loving parcels, neatly squared and sealed;
Her buoyant fancy trims its glossy wing,
And flits courageous o'er Love's flowery field.
Sure 't is a tender and a sparkling flame
That letters kindle and do sweetly feed;
Wilt fly, schoolmaster, for such noble game?
Maiden that doth all other maids exceed!
She writes with passion, and a nimble wit,
Void of all pedantry and vain pretence,
With native genius forcible and fit,
A flowing humor and surpassing sense:
Who gains her heart will win a precious prize,
And fortunate be in every lover's eyes.
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