[Page 203]

SONNET

TO HOPE.
* I commence the Sonnets with that to HOPE, from a predilection in its favour, for which I have a proud reason: it is that of Mr. Wordsworth, who lately honoured me with his visits while at Paris, having repeated it to me from memory, after a lapse of many years.

1 O, EVER skilled to wear the form we love!
2 To bid the shapes of fear and grief depart;
3 Come, gentle Hope! with one gay smile remove
4 The lasting sadness of an aching heart.
5 Thy voice, benign Enchantress! let me hear;
6 Say that for me some pleasures yet shall bloom,
7 That Fancy's radiance, Friendship's precious tear,
8 Shall soften, or shall chase, misfortune's gloom.
9 But come not glowing in the dazzling ray,
10 Which once with dear illusions charm'd my eye,
11 O! strew no more, sweet flatterer! on my way
12 The flowers I fondly thought too bright to die;
13 Visions less fair will soothe my pensive breast,
14 That asks not happiness, but longs for rest!

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Title (in Source Edition): SONNET TO HOPE.
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Genres: sonnet

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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, p. 203.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

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