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SONNET [01] I.

1 THE partial Muse has, from my earliest hours,
2 Smil'd on the rugged path I'm doom'd to tread,
3 And still with sportive hand has snatch'd wild flow'rs,
4 To weave fantastic garlands for my head:
5 But far, far happier is the lot of those
6 Who never learn'd her dear delusive art;
7 Which, while it decks the head with many a rose,
8 Reserves the thorn, to fester in the heart.
9 For still she bids soft Pity's melting eye
10 Stream o'er the ills she knows not to remove,
11 Points ev'ry pang, and deepens ev'ry sigh
12 Of mourning Friendship, or unhappy Love.
13
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LINE 13.

AH! then, how dear the Muse's favors cost,
If those paint sorrow best who feel it most!
The well sung woes shall soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint them, who shall feel them most.
Pope's Eloisa to Abelard, 366th line.
Ah! then, how dear the Muse's favors cost,
14 If those paint sorrow best who feel it most.

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Title (in Source Edition): SONNET [01] I.
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Genres: sonnet

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Source edition

Smith, Charlotte Turner, 1749-1806. Elegiac sonnets, and other poems. By Charlotte Smith. The first Worcester edition, from the sixth London edition, with additions. Printed at Worcester [Mass.]: by Isaiah Thomas, sold by him in Worcester, and by said Thomas and Andrews in Boston, 1795. xix,[2],22-126,[2]p.,[5] leaves of plates: ill.; 15 cm. (12mo) (OTA N22357)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by Charlotte Smith (née Turner)