[Page 210]

SONNET

TO EXPRESSION.

1 EXPRESSION, child of soul! I fondly trace
2 Thy strong enchantments, when the poet's lyre,
3 The painter's pencil, catch thy sacred fire,
4 And beauty wakes for thee her touching grace!
5 But from this frighted glance thy form avert,
6 When horror checks thy tear, thy struggling sigh,
7 When frenzy rolls in thy impassion'd eye,
8 Or guilt sits heavy on thy lab'ring heart;
9 Nor ever let my shudd'ring fancy hear
10 The wasting groan, or view the pallid look
11 Of him
* Chatterton.
the muses lov'd, when hope forsook
12 His spirit, vainly to the muses dear!
13 For, charm'd with heav'nly song, this mournful breast
14 Laments the power of verse could give despair no rest.

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

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Other works by Helen Maria Williams