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Poems and Plays

By William Hayley ... in Six Volumes. A New Edition

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SONNET LXXII.
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SONNET LXXII.

While prest with woes from which it cannot flee,
My fancy sinks, and slumber seals my eyes,
Her spirit hastens in my dreams to rise,
Who was in life but as a dream to me.
O'er a drear waste, so wide no eye can see
How far its sense-evading limit lies,
I follow her quick step; but ah! she flies!
Our distance widening by stern Fate's decree.
Fly not from me, kind shadow! I exclaim:
She, with fix'd eyes, that her soft thoughts reveal,
And seem to say, “Forbear thy fond design!”
Still flies:—I call her; but her half-form'd name
Dies on my falt'ring tongue.—I wake, and seel
Not e'en one short delusion may be mine.