[Page [107]]

QUEEN MARY'S COMPLAINT.

I.
1 PALE moon! thy mild benignant light
2 May glad some other captive's sight;
3 Bright'ning the gloomy objects nigh,
4 Thy beams a lenient thought supply:
5 But, O, pale moon! what ray of thine
6 Can soothe a misery like mine,
7 Chase the sad image of the past,
8 And woes for ever doom'd to last?
[Page 108]
II.
9 Where are the years with pleasure gay?
10 How bright their course! how short their stay!
11 Where are the crowns, that round my head
12 A double glory vainly spread?
13 Where are the beauties wont to move,
14 The grace, converting awe to love?
15 Alas! had fate design'd to bless,
16 Its equal hand had giv'n me less!
III.
17 Why did the regal garb array
18 A breast that tender passions sway?
19 A soul of unsuspicious frame,
20 Which leans with faith on friendship's name?
21 Ye vanish'd hopes! ye broken ties!
22 By perfidy, in friendship's guise,
23 This breast was injur'd, lost, betray'd
24 Where, where shall MARY look for aid?
[Page 109]
IV.
25 How could I hope redress to find,
26 Stern rival! from thy envious mind?
27 How could I e'er thy words believe?
28 O ever practised to deceive!
29 Thy wiles abhorr'd shall please alone
30 Cold bosoms, selfish as thy own;
31 While ages hence indignant hear
32 The horrors of my fate severe.
V.
33 Have not thy unrelenting hands
34 Torn nature's most endearing bands?
35 Whate'er I hop'd from woman's name,
36 The ties of blood, the stranger's claim!
37 A sister-queen's despairing breast
38 On thee securely lean'd for rest;
39 On thee! from whom that breast has bled
40 With sharper ills than those I fled.
[Page 110]
VI.
41 O, skill'd in every baser art!
42 Tyrant! to this unguarded heart
43 No guilt so black as thine belongs,
44 Which loads my length'ning years with wrongs.
45 Strike, then, at once, insatiate foe,
46 The long premeditated blow!
47 So shall thy jealous terrors cease,
48 And MARY'S harass'd soul have peace.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 91K / ZIP - 10K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.8K / ZIP - 1.2K)

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 4.1M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): QUEEN MARY'S COMPLAINT.
Themes: sadness; death
Genres: ode

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Williams, Helen Maria, 1759-1827. Poems on various subjects: with introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823, pp. [107]-110.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

Editorial principles

Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. 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 Helen Maria Williams