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Poems

Chiefly Written in Retirement, By John Thelwall; With Memoirs of the Life of the Author. Second Edition

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Sonnet to the Nightingale. 1788.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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Sonnet to the Nightingale. 1788.

Sweet Bird of Sympathy! whose voice alone
Sooths the attentive ear of darkling Woe,
Whose strains, responsive to the Wretch's moan,
With softly melancholy influence flow,
As thy sweet note thus melts upon my ear,
I heave the sigh—I shed the starting tear.
For oh! of Lucio—dear, departed friend!—
The fond memorial in that note I find.
When Joy forbore her cheerful smile to lend,
When Fortune lour'd on my benighted mind,
Alone, with Friendship's sympathizing strain,
He sooth'd my soul, and lull'd my bosom's pain.
Sweet Bird of Sympathy! for this the tear
Still shall Remembrance shed on Friendship's early bier!