SONNET TO MRS. BATES. Helen Maria Williams Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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. 209.

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SONNET TO MRS. BATES . O THOU , whose melody the heart obeys , Thou , who can'st all its subject passions move , Whose notes to heav'n the list'ning soul can raise , Can thrill with pity , or can melt with love ! Happy ! whom nature lent this native charm , Angelic tones , that shed , with magic power , A sweeter pleasure o'er the social hour : The breast to softness soothe , to virtue warm ; But yet more happy , that thy life as clear From discord as thy perfect cadence flows ; That , tun'd to sympathy , thy faithful tear In mild accordance falls for others' woes ; That all the tender , pure affections bind , In chains of harmony , thy willing mind !