SONNETS. SONNET I. To the River Trent. Written on Recovery from Sickness. ONCE more, O TRENT! along thy pebbly marge A pensive invalid, reduced, and pale, From the close sick-room newly let at large, Wooes to his wan-worn cheek the pleasant gale. Which fills with joy the throstle's little throat! It was on this that many a sleepless night, As, lone, he watched the taper's sickly gleam, And at his casement heard, with wild affright, The owl's dull wing, and melancholy scream, On this he thought, this, this, his sole desire, Thus once again to hear the warbling woodland choir. SONNET II. GIVE me a cottage on some Cambrian wild, And, by the beauties of the scene beguil'd, While on the rock I mark the browsing goat, I shall not want the world's delusive joys; Shall think my lot complete, nor covet more; SONNET III*. Supposed to have been addressed by a Female Lunatic to a Lady, LADY, thou weepest for the Maniac's woe, And thou art fair, and thou, like me, art young, pangs with which my wretched heart is wrung. I had a mother once-a brother too— (Beneath yon yew my father rests his head :) *This Quatorzain had its rise from an elegant Sonnet, occa sioned by seeing a young Female Lunatic," written by Mrs. Lofft, and published in the Monthly Mirror. The green sod soon upon my breast will lie, SONNET IV. Supposed to be written by the unhappy Poet Dermody, in a Storm, while on board a Ship in his Majesty's service. LO! o'er the welkin the tempestuous clouds View the drear tempest, and the yawning deep, SONNET V. THE WINTER TRAVELLER. GOD help thee, Traveller, on thy journey far; A dismal night—and on my wakeful bed SONNET VI. BY CAPEL LOFFT, ESQ. This Sonnet was addressed to the Author of this Volume, and was occasioned by several little Quatorzains, misnomered Sonnets, which he published in the Monthly Mirror. He begs leave to return his thanks to the much-respected Writer, for the permis sion so politely granted, to insert it here, and for the good opinion he has been pleased to express of his productions. YE, whose aspirings court the muse of lays, ; "Severest of those orders which belong, "Distinct and separate, to Delphic song," Why shun the Sonnet's undulating maze? And why its name, boast of Petrarchian days, Assume, its rules disown'd? whom from the throng The muse selects, their ear the charm obeys Of its full harmony:-they fear to wrong The Sonnet, by adorning with a name Of that distinguished import, lays, though sweet, Of that so varied and peculiar frame. Those it beseems, whose Lyre a favouring impulse sways. |