[Page 204]

SONNET

TO TWILIGHT.

1 MEEK Twilight! soften the declining day,
2 And bring the hour my pensive spirit loves;
3 When o'er the mountain slow descends the ray
4 That gives to silence and to night the groves.
5 Ah, let the happy court the morning still,
6 When, in her blooming loveliness arrayed,
7 She bids fresh beauty light the vale or hill,
8 And rapture warble in the vocal shade.
9 Sweet is the odour of the morning's flower,
10 And rich in melody her accents rise;
11 Yet dearer to my soul the shadowy hour
12 At which her blossoms close, her music dies:
13 For then, while languid Nature droops her head,
14 She wakes the tear 'tis luxury to shed.

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Title (in Source Edition): SONNET TO TWILIGHT.
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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. 204.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

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Other works by Helen Maria Williams