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[Page 83]Elegy. [*]
[Page 84]
[Page 85]
[Page 86]
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Elegy. [*][*]
This elegy is written on the supposition that an indigent young woman had been addressed by the son of a wealthy yeoman, who resenting his attachment, had driven him from home, and compelled him to have recourse for subsistence to the occupation of a pilot, in which, attempting to save a vessel in distress, he perished.
The father dying, a tomb is supposed to be erected to his memory in the churchyard mentioned in Sonnet the 44th. And while a tempest is gathering, the unfortunate young woman comes thither; and courting the same death as had robbed her of her lover, she awaits its violence, and is at length overwhelmed by the waves.
This elegy is written on the supposition that an indigent young woman had been addressed by the son of a wealthy yeoman, who resenting his attachment, had driven him from home, and compelled him to have recourse for subsistence to the occupation of a pilot, in which, attempting to save a vessel in distress, he perished.
The father dying, a tomb is supposed to be erected to his memory in the churchyard mentioned in Sonnet the 44th. And while a tempest is gathering, the unfortunate young woman comes thither; and courting the same death as had robbed her of her lover, she awaits its violence, and is at length overwhelmed by the waves.
1 'DARK gath'ring clouds involve the threat'ning skies,
2 ' The sea heaves conscious of th'impending gloom,
3 'Deep, hollow murmurs from the cliffs arise;
4 ' They come — the Spirits of the Tempest come!
5 'Oh! may such terrors mark th' approaching night
6 ' As reign'd on that these streaming eyes deplore!
7 'Flash, ye red fires of Heav'n, with fatal light,
8 ' And with conflicting winds, ye waters roar!
9 'Loud, and more loud, ye foaming billows burst!
10 ' Ye warring elements more fiercely rave!
11 'Till the wide waves o'erwhelm the spot accurst,
12 "Where ruthless Avarice finds a quiet grave!"
13 Thus with clasp'd hands, wild looks and streaming hair,
14 While shrieks of horror broke her trembling speech,
15 A wretched maid — the victim of Despair,
16 Survey'd the threat'ning storm and desert beech;
17 Then to the tomb where now the father slept,
18 Whose rugged nature bade her sorrows flow,
19 Frantic she turn'd — and beat her breast and wept,
20 Invoking vengeance on the dust below.
21 'Lo! rising there above each humbler heap,
22 ' Yon cypher'd stones his name and wealth relate,
23 'Who gave his son — remorseless — to the deep,
24 ' While I, his living victim, curse my fate.
25 'Oh! my lost love! no tomb is plac'd for thee,
26 ' That may to strangers' eyes thy worth impart;
27 ' Thou hast no grave, but in the stormy sea,
28 'And no memorial, but this breaking heart.
29 'Forth to the world, a widow'd wand'rer driv'n,
30 ' I pour to winds and waves th' unheeded tear,
31 'Try with vain effort to submit to Heav'n,
32 ' And fruitless call on him — "who cannot hear." [*]
[*]
VERSE 8. LINE 4.
And fruitless calls on him who cannot hear.
I fruitless mourn to him who cannot hear,
And weep the more because I weep in vain.
Gray's exquisite Sonnet:
in reading which it is impossible not to regret that he wrote only one.
33 'Oh! might I fondly clasp him once again,
34 ' While o'er my head th' infuriate billows pour,
35 'Forget in Death this agonizing pain,
36 ' And feel his father's cruelty no more!
37 'Part, raging waters, part, and shew beneath,
38 ' In your dread caves, his pale and mangled form;
39 'Now, while the demons of Despair and Death
40 ' Ride on the blast, and urge the howling storm!
41 'Lo! by the light'ning's momentary blaze,
42 ' I see him rise the whitening waves above,
43 'No longer such as when in happier days
44 ' He gave th' enchanted hours — to me and love.
45 'Such, as when daring the enchafed sea,
46 ' And courting dang'rous toil, he often said,
47 'That every peril, one soft smile from me,
48 ' One sigh of speechless tenderness, o'erpaid.
49 'But dead, disfigur'd, while between the roar
50 ' Of the loud waves his accents pierce mine ear,
51 'And seem to say — Ah! wretch, delay no more,
52 ' But come, unhappy mourner — meet me here.
53 'Yet, powerful Fancy, bid the phantom stay,
54 ' Still let me hear him! — 'Tis already past;
55 'Along the waves his shadow glides away,
56 ' I lose his voice amid the deaf'ning blast.
57 'Ah! wild Illusion, born of frantic Pain!
58 ' He hears not, comes not from his wat'ry bed;
59 'My tears, my anguish, my despair are vain,
60 ' Th' insatiate ocean gives not up its dead.
61 ''Tis not his voice! Hark! the deep thunders roll;
62 ' Up heaves the ground; the rocky barriers fail;
63 'Approach, ye horrors that delight my soul,
64 ' Despair, and Death, and Desolation — hail!'
65 The ocean hears — th' embodied waters come —
66 Rise o'er the land, and with resistless sweep
67 Tear from its base the proud aggressor's tomb,
68 And bear the injured to eternal sleep!
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About this text
Author: Charlotte Smith (née Turner)
Themes:
Genres:
elegy; heroic quatrain
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Source edition
Smith, Charlotte Turner, 1749-1806. Elegiac sonnets, and other poems. By Charlotte Smith. The first Worcester edition, from the sixth London edition, with additions. Printed at Worcester [Mass.]: by Isaiah Thomas, sold by him in Worcester, and by said Thomas and Andrews in Boston, 1795, pp. 83-87. xix,[2],22-126,[2]p.,[5] leaves of plates: ill.; 15 cm. (12mo) (OTA N22357)
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editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic
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Other works by Charlotte Smith (née Turner)
- [THE EMIGRANTS.] ()
- Ode to Despair. From the Novel of Emmeline. ()
- Origin of Flattery. ()
- Peasant of the Alps. From the Novel of Celestina. ()
- Song. ()
- Song. From the French of Cardinal Bernis. ()
- SONNET [01] I. ()
- SONNET [02] II. Written at the Close of Spring. ()
- SONNET [03] III. To a Nightingale. ()
- SONNET [04] IV. To the Moon. ()
- SONNET [05] V. To the South Downs. ()
- SONNET [06] VI. To Hope. ()
- SONNET [07] VII. On the Departure of the Nightingale. ()
- SONNET [08] VIII. To Spring. ()
- SONNET [09] IX. ()
- SONNET [10] X. To Mrs. G***. ()
- SONNET [11] XI. To Sleep. ()
- SONNET [12] XII. Written on the Sea Shore. — October, 1784. ()
- SONNET [13] XIII. From Petrarch. ()
- SONNET [14] XIV. From Petrarch. ()
- SONNET [15] XV. From Petrarch. ()
- SONNET [16] XVI. From Petrarch. ()
- SONNET [17] XVII. From the thirteenth Cantata of Metastasio. ()
- SONNET [18] XVIII. To the Earl of Egremont. ()
- SONNET [19] XIX. To Mr. Hayley. On receiving some elegant Lines from him. ()
- SONNET [20] XX. To the Cotentess of A****. Written on the Anniversary of her Marriage. ()
- SONNET [21] XXI. Supposed to be written by Werter. ()
- SONNET [22] XXII. By the same. To Solitude. ()
- SONNET [23] XXIII. By the same. To the North Star. ()
- SONNET [24] XXIV. By the same. ()
- SONNET [25] XXV. By the same. Just before his Death. ()
- SONNET [26] XXVI. To the River Arun. ()
- SONNET [27] XXVII. ()
- SONNET [28] XXVIII. To Friendship. ()
- SONNET [29] XXIX. To Miss C****. On being desired to attempt writing a Comedy. ()
- SONNET [30] XXX. To the River Arun. ()
- SONNET [31] XXXI. Written on Farm Wood, South Downs, May, 1784. ()
- SONNET [32] XXXII. To Melancholy. Written on the Banks of the Arun, October, 1785. ()
- SONNET [33] XXXIII. To the Naiad of the Arun. ()
- SONNET [34] XXXIV. To a Friend. ()
- SONNET [35] XXXV. To Fortitude. ()
- SONNET [36] XXXVI. ()
- SONNET [37] XXXVII. Sent to the Hon. Mrs. O'Niell, with painted Flowers. ()
- SONNET [38] XXXVIII. From the Novel of Emmeline. ()
- SONNET [39] XXXIX. To Night. From the same. ()
- SONNET [40] XL. From the same. ()
- SONNET [41] XLI. To Tranquillity. ()
- SONNET [42] XLII. Composed during a Walk on the Downs, Nov. 1787. ()
- SONNET [43] XLIII. ()
- SONNET [44] XLIV. Written in the Church Yard at Middleton in Sussex. ()
- SONNET [45] XLV. On leaving a part of Sussex. ()
- SONNET [46] XLVI. Written at Penshurst, in Autumn, 1788. ()
- SONNET [47] XLVII. To Fancy. ()
- SONNET [48] XLVIII. To Mrs. ****. ()
- SONNET [49] XLIX. Supposed to have been written in a Church Yard, over the Grave of a Young Woman of nineteen. From the Novel of Celestina. ()
- SONNET [50] L. From the Novel of Celestina. ()
- SONNET [51] LI. Supposed to have been written in the Hebrides. From the Novel of Celestina. ()
- SONNET [52] LII. The Pilgrim. From the Novel of Celestina. ()
- SONNET [53] LIII. The Laplander. From the Novel of Celestina. ()
- SONNET [54] LIV. The sleeping Woodman. Written in April, 1790. ()
- SONNET [55] LV. The Return of the Nightingale. Written in May, 1791. ()
- SONNET [56] LVI. The Captive escaped in the Wilds of America. Addressed to the Honourable Mrs. O'Neill. ()
- SONNET [57] LVII. To Dependence. ()
- SONNET [58] LVIII. The Glow Worm. ()
- SONNET [59] LIX. Written during a Thunder Storm, September, 1791; in which the Moon was perfectly clear, while the Tempest gathered in various directions near the Earth. ()
- Thirty Eight. Addressed to Mrs. H—y. ()
- Verses. Intended to have been prefixed to the Novel of Emmeline, but these suppressed. ()