Poems and Plays By William Hayley ... in Six Volumes. A New Edition |
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SONNET
TO
Mrs. SMITH |
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 | Poems and Plays |  |
170
SONNET TO Mrs. SMITH
Thou whose chaste song simplicity inspires,Attractive poetess of plaintive strain!
Speak not unjustly of poetic fires,
Nor the pure bounty of thy Muse arraign:
No, not the source, the soother she of pain.
If thy soft breast the thorns of anguish knew,
Ah! think what myriads with thy truth complain
Of fortune's thorny paths! and think how few
Of all those myriads know thy magic art,
The fiercer pangs of sorrow to subdue,
By those melodious tears that ease thy heart,
And bid the breath of fame thy life renew;
Sure to excite, till nature's self decays,
Her lasting sympathy, her endless praise!
| Poems and Plays | |