[Page 206]

SONNET

TO THE MOON.

1 THE glitt'ring colours of the day are fled;
2 Come, melancholy orb! that dwell'st with night,
3 Come! and o'er earth thy wand'ring lustre shed,
4 Thy deepest shadow, and thy softest light;
5 To me congenial is the gloomy grove,
6 When with faint light the sloping uplands shine;
7 That gloom, those pensive rays alike I love,
8 Whose sadness seems in sympathy with mine!
9 But most for this, pale orb! thy beams are dear,
10 For this, benignant orb! I hail thee most:
11 That while I pour the unavailing tear,
12 And mourn that hope to me in youth is lost,
13 Thy light can visionary thoughts impart,
14 And lead the Muse to soothe a suff'ring heart.

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

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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, p. 206.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

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Other works by Helen Maria Williams