 | Household Verses |  |
238
SONNET, TO THE MEMORY OF GAINSBOROUGH;
SUGGESTED BY THE FRONTISPIECE.
By scenes like this thine earlier taste was fedFor Nature's beauty in each lone recess,
Where, with her richest sylvan loveliness,
She courts her fond enthusiast's lingering tread!
Embowering foliage—arching over-head
Steep, broken sand-banks, she knows how to dress
In charms few pencils could like thine express,
Heightened by gleams of light through darkness shed.
This spot, in early life a haunt of thine,
And honoured still, because it bears thy name,
Is drawn by one who feels how dear that claim
To Nature's votaries; nor would wish to shine,
Either in execution, or design,
By other arts than those which won thee fame!
| Household Verses | |