is thy smart
Proceeding from the Form we fondly love!
How light, compared, all _other_ sorrows prove!
THOU shed'st a _Night_ of Woe, from whence depart
The gentle beams of Patience, that the heart
'Mid _lesser_ ills, illume.--_Thy_ Victims rove
Unquiet as the Ghost that haunts the Grove
Where MURDER spilt the life-blood.--O! thy dart
Kills _more_ than Life,--e'en all that makes Life dear;
Till we "the sensible of pain" wou'd change
For Phrenzy, that defies the bitter tear;
Or wish, in kindred callousness, to range
Where moon-ey'd IDIOCY, with fallen lip,
Drags the loose knee, and intermitting step.

_July 1773._

SONNET XV.

WRITTEN ON RISING GROUND NEAR LICHFIELD.

The evening shines in May's luxuriant pride,
And all the sunny hills at distance glow,
And all the brooks, that thro' the valley flow,
Seem liquid gold.--O! had my fate denied
Leisure, and power to taste the sweets that glide
Thro' waken'd minds, as the soft seasons go
On their still varying progress, for the woe
My heart has felt, what balm had been supplied?
But where great NATURE smiles, as _here_ she smiles,
'Mid verdant vales, and gently swelling hills,
And glassy lakes, and mazy, murmuring rills,
And narrow wood-wild lanes, her spell beguiles
Th' impatient sighs of Grief, and reconciles
Poetic Minds to Life, with all her ills.

_May 1774._

SONNET XVI.

TRANSLATED FROM BOILEAU.

Apollo, at his crowded altars, tir'd
Of Votaries, who for trite ideas thrown
Into loose verse, assume, in lofty tone,
The Poet's name, untaught, and uninspir'd,
Indignant struck the LYRE.--Straight it acquir'd
New powers, and complicate. Then first was known
The rigorous Sonnet, to be fram'd alone
By duteous Bards, or by just Taste admir'd.--
Go, energetic SONNET, go, he cried,
And be the test of skill!--For rhymes that flow
Regardless of thy rules, their destin'd guide,
Yet take thy name, ah! let the boasters know
That with strict sway my jealous laws preside,
While I no wreaths on _rebel_ verse bestow.

SONNET XVII.

Ah! why have I indulg'd my dazzled sight
With scenes in Hope's delusive mirror shown?
Scenes, that too seldom human Life has known
In kind accomplishment;--but O! how bright
The rays, that gilded them with varied light
Alternate! oft swift flashing o