ABSENCE. Elizabeth Hands (née Herbert) 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. T141063 Hands, Elizabeth, 1746-1815. The death of Amnon. A poem. With an appendix: containing pastorals, and other poetical pieces. By Elizabeth Hands. [Coventry] Printed for the author, by N. Rollason, Coventry, M,DCCLXXXIX. 1789 pp. 120-121. [40],127,[1]p.; 8⁰.

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ABSENCE . When Collin's tuneful pipe with soft'ning strains , Fill'd with melodious sounds the neighb'ring plains ; The nightingale responsive , in the grove Sung her sweet lay , and tun'd my heart to love : But absent now from all that's to me dear , A charm in Music I no longer hear . Where are the joys the early seasons bring ? For herds the grass , for bees the flowers spring ; The black-birds sing on ev'ry blooming thorn , And fresh'ning daisies ev'ry vale adorn : In vain the spring for me adorns the plains , While in my heart so cold a winter reigns . The herds in Summer seek the cooling streams , Where shady trees exclude the sultry beams ; The shepherds to some op'ning glade repair , Where gentle breezes temperate the air : But no cool breeze can fan my flame away , Nor cooler streams the latent fire allay . Rich Autumn now adds profit to delight , And rip'ning apples ev'ry hand invite ; Each swain divides his apple with his fair , So I with Collin once was wont to share : But now no fruits to please my taste have pow'r , Not gather'd by his hand , all fruits are four . Winter a-while each growing herb restrains , And locks all nature in his icy chains ; His reign but for a season doth endure , Spring smiles , and nature feels the pow'rful cure : But ah ! my heart's in faster fetters bound , Which still grow stronger as the years go round .