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University of Virginia Library

The Poetical Works of Anna Seward

With Extracts from her Literary Correspondence. Edited by Walter Scott ... In Three Volumes

Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

I.

II.

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III.

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SPEECH OF THE NYMPH OF THAT BROOK,

SONNET.

THE TERRESTRIAL YEAR,

INSCRIBED ON THE BACK OF A LANDSCAPE,

INSCRIBED ON THE BACK OF THE COMPANION LANDSCAPE.

INSCRIBED ON THE BACK OF A LANDSCAPE,

ADDRESS TO THE RIVER IN A LANDSCAPE,

TO MISS HONORA SMITH of LICHFIELD.

ADMONITION TO ROSILDA.

A MARINE VIEW MORALIZED

TO ROBERT HARPER, Esq.

BALLAD IN THE ANCIENT SCOTCH DIALECT,

ADDRESSED TO THE REV. THOMAS SEDGEWICK WHALLEY,

THE GRAVE OF YOUTH.

TO MISS CATHERINE MALLET.

ELEGY, WRITTEN AS FROM A FRENCH LADY,

TO MISS MANSEL,

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG ROSCIUS.

A FAVOURITE CAT'S DYING SOLILOQUY,

TO LITTLE CATHERINE HARPER, AGED THREE YEARS,

INSCRIBED ON THE BLANK LEAVES OF THE POEM MADOC.

TO F. N. C. MUNDY,Esq.

TO REMEMBRANCE.

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316

SONNET.

[Gay trips my nymph along the green retreat]

Gay trips my nymph along the green retreat,
With frolic airy steps; and where they go
Fresh florets rise in twice their wonted glow;
Yellower the sun-beams o'er the meadows fleet,
Or fancies fond possess me. Her light feet,
Glancing along, no other traces show;
They bend not the young grass, that springs to meet
The falling arch of April's showery bow;
Nor bruise the emmet on her busy way;
And if the downy blow-ball flies its stalk,
So would it fly beneath the gentlest play
Of western winds; when, with his tuneful talk,
Amid new leaves, each songster of the grove
Cheers on her mossy nest his listening love.

This Sonnet is in the style of our elder poets, with whom the hyperbole was a favourite poetic figure.

Ben Jonson's name for the seedvessels of the Dandelion.