[Page 127]
SONNET.
APOLOGY FOR RETIREMENT, 1766.
1 WHY asks my Friend what chears the passing day,
2 Where these lone fields my rural home inclose;
3 That me no scenes the pompous city shows
4 Lure from that rural residence away?
5 Now thro' my laurel groves I musing stray,
6 Now breathe the gale that o'er the lilac blows,
7 Now in my grotto's solemn cells repose,
8 Or down the smooth vale wind at evening gray;
9 Now charms the lofty Poet's tuneful lay,
10 Where Music fraught with fair Instruction flows;
[Page 128]11 Now Delia's converse makes the moments gay,
12 The nymph for love and innocence I chose:
13 O Friend! the man who joys like these can taste
14 On Vice and Folly needs no hour to waste.
About this text
Author: John Scott
Themes:
retirement
Genres:
sonnet
References:
DMI 32644
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. IV. [The second edition]. London: printed for G. Pearch, 1770, pp. 127-128. 4v. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T116245; DMI 1137; OTA K093079.004) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.791].)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by John Scott
- ELEGY. WRITTEN AT THE APPROACH OF SPRING. ()
- ELEGY. WRITTEN AT THE APPROACH OF WINTER. ()
- ELEGY. WRITTEN IN THE HARVEST. ()
- ELEGY. WRITTEN IN THE HOT WEATHER, JULY MDCCLVII. ()
- HYMN FROM PSALM LXV. ()
- HYMN FROM PSALM VIII. ()
- ON READING MRS. MACAULAY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ()
- SONNET ON ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT. ()
- SONNET. ()
- SONNET. TO BRITANNIA. ()
- SONNET. TO DELIA. ()
- WINTER PROSPECTS IN THE COUNTRY. AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND IN LONDON, 1756. ()