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The poetical writings of Elizabeth Oakes Smith

Second edition
Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince (1806-1893)

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THE SINLESS CHILD.
  
INSCRIPTION.
 1. 
PART I.
 2. 
PART II.
 3. 
PART III.
 4. 
PART IV.
 5. 
PART V.
 6. 
PART VI.
 7. 
PART VII.
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SONNETS.
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THE POET'S LIFE, IN SIX SONNETS.
 1. 
I. POESY.
 2. 
II. THE BARD.
 3. 
III. THE UNATTAINED.
 4. 
IV. RELIGION.
 5. 
V. A DREAM.
 6. 
VI. AN INCIDENT.
 7. 
VII. ERROR.
 8. 
VIII. MENTAL SOLITUDE.
 9. 
IX. DISTRUST.
 10. 
X. ILLUSTRATION OF A CAMEO:
 11. 
XI. THE RUSTIC.
 12. 
XII. THE RUSTIC.
 13. 
XIII. WAYFARERS.
 14. 
XIV. TWILIGHT
 15. 
XV. TO THE OPAL.
 16. 
XVI. DUTY.
 17. 
XVII. THE PILGRIM.
 18. 
XVIII. SYMPATHY.
 16. 
XIX. SYMPATHY.
 20. 
XX. SELF RENUNCIATION.
 21. 
XXI. TO THE HUDSON.
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LIFE.
 22. 
XXII. CHILDHOOD.
 23. 
XXIII. YOUTH.
 24. 
XXIV. MANHOOD.
 25. 
XXV. OLD AGE.
 26. 
XXVI. LIFE-LONG MARTYRDOM.
 27. 
XXVII. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
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ATHEISM,
 28. 
XXVIII. FAITH.
 29. 
XXIX. REASON.
 30. 
XXX. ANNIHILATION
  
THE ACORN.
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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
  
THE APRIL RAIN.
  
THE WATER.
  
THE PARK FOUNTAIN.
  
THE LAST SHOT.
  
“THOU HAST LOVED.”
  
PRESAGES.
  
THE LOVE OF LADY ANN.
  
CHILDHOOD'S LAUGH.
  
THE CHILD AND THE ROSE.
  
TO A BABE.
  
THE CHILD'S BENEDICTION.
  
LOVE SHELTERED.
  
THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.
  
THE FIRST LEAF OF AUTUMN.
  
MINISTERING SPIRITS.
  
FAREWELL TO FANCY.
  
THE ELEVENTH HOUR.
  
THE APPEAL.
  
THE JEWISH CAPTIVE.
  
SONG. I.
  
SONG. II.
  
SONG. III.
  
THE BROOK.
  
THE SLEEP OF PLANTS.
  
THE FLOWER OF INNOCENCE,
  
THE OLD MAN.
  
THE DROWNED MARINER.
  
THE SUMMONS ANSWERED.
  
THE TWICE-TOLD SEAL.
  
THE VOICE OF THE AGE.

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125

XXX.
ANNIHILATION

“What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—

Jesus.

Doubt, Cypress crowned, upon a ruined arch
Amid the shapely temple overthrown,
Exultant, stays at length her onward march.
Her victim, all with earthliness o'ergrown,
Hath sunk himself to earth to perish there;
His thoughts are outward, all his love a blight,
Dying, deluding are his hopes though fair—
And death, the spirit's everlasting night.
Thus, midnight travellers, on some mountain steep,
Hear far above the avalanche boom down,
Starting the glacier echoes from their sleep,
And lost in glens to human foot unknown—
The death-plunge of the lost come to their ear,
And silence claims again her region cold and drear.
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