UPON A YOUNG LADY'S LEAVING LOUDOUN CASTLE. Janet Little (later Richmond) 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. T126549 Little, Janet, 1759-1813. The Poetical Works of Janet Little, the Scotch Milkmaid. Air Printed by John & Peter Wilson 1792 pp. [37]-39.

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UPON A YOUNG LADY'S LEAVING LOUDOUN CASTLE . WHAT means this silent , solitary gloom ? All nature in her dishabille appears ; Contracted flow'rets yield no sweet perfume , And ev'ry grove a dismal aspect wears . Nor do the joys of Autumn glad our plains ; Our landscapes are in sable weeds array'd ; No jocund sound is heard among the swains , And nought but sighs from each dejected maid . Rude Eurus echoing through the distant woods , With harsh , discordant note , augments our wo ; While rains , impetuous , from the bursting clouds , Our verdant walks and pleasure-grounds o'erflow . Incumber'd by their foliage now , the trees , With leaves , untimely dropp'd , bestrew the ground : Because Matilda's presence does not please , All bleak and dismal seem the fields around . Her placid looks bespoke a mind serene , Each feature wore an unaffected smile ; Her's was the pow'r to beautify the scene , And sweetly gay the languid hours beguile . Her count'nance milder than an April morn , When Phoebus first emits his infant rays ; More radiant beauties do her mind adorn , Than ere were brighten'd by his noon-tide blaze . Fair Virtue , cloth'd in all it's native sweets , Celestial precepts in her breast inlaid ; And oft , as friendly intercourse invites , In softest accents from her lips convey'd . But now she's gone , a sullen sadness reigns ! Absorb'd in grief we still her absence mourn , Or beg that heaven would smile upon our plains , And grant a blessing in her swift return .