 | The Poetical Works of Caroline Bowles Southey |  |
SONNET.
[What if the tale was true, as some believe]
What if the tale was true, as some believe,That Tasso's love to Leonora gave?
Oh! happy Leonora, to receive
Such fame-conferring vows from such a slave!
Darling of many hearts! Of short-lived fame
The favoured minion! born in courts to shine!
Yet but for him, for his illustrious name,
What deathless annals had recorded thine?
These are thy triumphs, Genius! flames that burn
With brightening glory through the mists of time—
When earth-born spirits to the earth return,
Thine mounting from thine ashes soars sublime;
And where they moulder, Contemplation's eye
With awful reverence dwells, when kings forgotten lie.
| The Poetical Works of Caroline Bowles Southey | |