[Page 216]

SONNET

TO THE TORRID ZONE.

1 PATHWAY of light! o'er thy empurpled zone,
2 With lavish charms, perennial summer strays;
3 Soft 'midst thy spicy groves the zephyr plays,
4 While far around the rich perfumes are thrown;
5 The Amadavid-bird for thee alone
6 Spreads his gay plumes, that catch thy vivid rays;
7 For thee the gems with liquid lustre blaze,
8 And Nature's various wealth is all thy own.
9 But ah! not thine is Twilight's doubtful gloom,
10 Those mild gradations, mingling day with night;
11 Here instant darkness shrouds thy genial bloom,
12 Nor leaves my pensive soul that ling'ring light,
13 When musing Mem'ry would each trace resume
14 Of fading pleasures in successive flight.

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

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Other works by Helen Maria Williams