cing her showery clouds with crystal light,
And with their hues reflected streaking bright
Her radiant bow, bids all her Warblers sing;
The Lark, shrill caroling on soaring wing;
The lonely Thrush, in brake, with blossoms white,
That tunes his pipe so loud; while, from the sight
Coy bending their dropt heads, young Cowslips fling
Rich perfume o'er the fields.--It is the prime
Of Hours that Beauty robes:--yet all they gild,
Cheer, and delight in this their fragrant time,
For thy dear sake, to me less pleasure yield
Than, veil'd in sleet, and rain, and hoary rime,
Dim Winter's naked hedge and plashy field.

_May 1770._

1: Afterwards Mrs. Edgeworth.

SONNET V.

TO A
FRIEND,
WHO THINKS SENSIBILITY A MISFORTUNE.

Ah, thankless! canst thou envy him who gains
The Stoic's cold and indurate repose?
Thou! with thy lively sense of bliss and woes!--
From a false balance of life's joys and pains
Thou deem'st him happy.--Plac'd 'mid fair domains,
Where full the river down the valley flows,
As wisely might'st thou wish thy home had rose
On the parch'd surface of unwater'd plains,
For that, when long the heavy rain descends,
Bursts over guardian banks their whelming tide!--
Seldom the wild and wasteful Flood extends,
But, spreading plenty, verdure, beauty wide,
The cool translucent Stream perpetual bends,
And laughs the Vale as the bright waters glide.

SONNET VI.

WRITTEN AT LICHFIELD,
IN AN EASTERN APARTMENT OF THE BISHOP'S PALACE,
WHICH COMMANDS A VIEW OF STOW VALLEY.

In this chill morning of a wintry Spring
I look into the gloom'd and rainy vale;
The sullen clouds, the stormy winds assail,
Lour on the fields, and with impetuous wing
Disturb the lake:--but Love and Memory cling
To their known scene, in this cold influence pale;
Yet priz'd, as when it bloom'd in Summer's gale,
Ting'd by his setting sun.--When Sorrows fling,
Or slow Disease, thus, o'er some beauteous Form
Their shadowy languors, Form, devoutly dear
As thine to me, HONORA, with more warm
And anxious gaze the eyes of Love sincere
Bend on the charms, dim in their tintless snow,
Than when with health's vermilion hues they glow.

SONNET VII.

By Derwent's rapid stream as oft I stray'd,
With Infancy's light step and glances wild,
And saw vast rocks, on steepy mou