University of Virginia Library


184

SONNET, 1803.

(In a late fashionable and highly-finished style.)

TO A WEEPING WILLOW.

Ah me! I trace thy tendrils' sombrous sweep,
O'er yon blue lake that streams with tinted light;
Thy pensile locks, reflected on the steep,
Wave their pale umbrage to my quivering sight.
Say, did some love-lorn Dryad bid thee mourn,
And stoop thy verdant head in sullen mood?
Say, did some Naiad, pensive o'er her urn,
Bend thee in sorrow to her silvery flood?
Tho' sun-bath'd Nature sweetly laughs around,
And cheers thy drooping film, fair queen of trees,
Still art thou sad—I catch the dying sound,
Wak'd in thy bosom by the billowy breeze.
Alas! this woe-worn heart of misery
Sighs to thy sighs, and fondly weeps with thee.