WRITTEN IN ZIMMERMANN's SOLITUDE. (Mary) Matilda Betham 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. T143264 Betham, Mary Matilda, 1776-1852. Elegies and Other Small Poems, by Matilda Betham. Ipswich Printed by W. Burrell, and sold by Longman, Paternoster-Row, and Jermyn and Forster, Ipswich 1797 pp. [111]-112.

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WRITTEN IN ZIMMERMANN's SOLITUDE . HAIL , melancholy sage ! whose thoughtful eye , Shrunk from the mere spectator's careless gaze , And , in retirement sought the social smile , The heart-endearing aspect , and the voice Of soothing tenderness , which Friendship breathes , And which sounds far more grateful to the ear , Than the soft notes of distant flute at eve , Stealing across the waters : Zimmermann ! Thou draw'st not Solitude as others do , With folded arms , with pensive , nun-like air , And tearful eye , averted from mankind . No ! warm , benign , and cheerful , she appears The friend of Health , of Piety , and Peace ; The kind Samaritan that heals our woes , The nurse of Science , and , of future fame The gentle harbinger : her meek abode Is that dear home , which still the virtuous heart , E'en in the witching maze of Pleasure's dance , In wild Ambition's dream , regards with love , And hopes , with fond security , to pass The evening of a long-protracted day , Serenely joyful , there .