[Page 215]

SONNET

TO THE CURLEW.

1 SOOTH'D by the murmurs on the sea-beat shore,
2 His dun-grey plumage floating to the gale,
3 The Curlew blends his melancholy wail
4 With those hoarse sounds the rushing waters pour.
5 Like thee, congenial bird! my steps explore
6 The bleak lone sea-beach, or the rocky dale,
7 And shun the orange bower, the myrtle vale,
8 Whose gay luxuriance suits my soul no more.
9 I love the ocean's broad expanse, when drest
10 In limpid clearness, or when tempests blow:
11 When the smooth currents on its placid breast
12 Flow calm, as my past moments us'd to flow;
13 Or when its troubled waves refuse to rest,
14 And seem the symbol of my present woe.

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

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Other works by Helen Maria Williams