Poems and other Pieces :: :: University of Virginia Library

SONNET

To Miss Aikin (now Mrs. Barbauld), written in a blank leaf of Sir William Davenant's Gondibert.

The luckless leaf of this most dainty flower
That Time's inclement cloud from early day,
(Gathering with wizard stealth its silent power)
Would fain in wintry grave have hid for aye,
Much good befall thy care, kind maid! resumes
Its youthful pride and summer hues at last,
By thy soft hand attired again it blooms,
And sweet again shall smell uninjur'd by the past,
Far from the Muse's bay-enwoven bower,
Like a lone vulture at her mangled spoil.
May time o'er evil works for ever cower,
Nor know the limits of so sweet a soil,
Or e'en, when thou art dead, obscure thy tomb,
Fate has deny'd him touch thy laurel's living bloom.