[Page [239]]

TO A FRIEND,

WHO SENT ME FLOWERS, WHEN CONFINED BY ILLNESS.

1 WHILE sickness still my step detains
2 From scenes where vernal pleasure reigns,
3 Where Spring has bath'd with dewy tear
4 The blossoms of the op'ning year;
5 To soothe confinement's languid hours,
6 You send a lavish gift of flowers,
7 Midst whose soft odours mem'ry roves
8 O'er all the images she loves.
9 Not long their sweetness shall prevail,
10 Their rosy tints shall soon be pale,
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11 Yet fancy in their fading hues
12 No emblem of our friendship views;
13 Its firm fidelity shall last,
14 When all the flowers of spring are past;
15 And when life's summer shall be o'er,
16 That summer which returns no more,
17 Still friendship, with perennial bloom,
18 Shall soften half the winter's gloom!

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Title (in Source Edition): TO A FRIEND, WHO SENT ME FLOWERS, WHEN CONFINED BY ILLNESS.
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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, pp. [239]-240.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

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Other works by Helen Maria Williams