 | Voices from the Lakes, and Other Poems |  |
288
SONNET. NATURE.
“In Nature there is nothing melancholy.”—Coleridge.
Thus sings the poet; but does truth lie so?
Nature, indeed, in beauty rich is clad,
But yet her fairest scenes are often sad;
E'en while we gaze, the eye will overflow;
As certain troubled undertones of woe
Run thro' the very songs that make us glad.
Thus melancholy shadows all below,
We hardly hold our blessings till they go.
Do not our smiles lie very near our tears?
Our brightest joys tread closely on our pains,
Some discords linger thro' the sweetest strains,
And hope is often darkened by our fears.
And what the secret of all this? The source?
Is it not here, “The world is out of course”?
| Voices from the Lakes, and Other Poems | |