Sonnet CCV
SONNET CCV.
Fresco ambroso fiorito e verde colle.
HE CONGRATULATES HIS HEART ON ITS REMAINING WITH HER.
O hill with green o'erspread, with groves o'erhung!Where musing now, now trilling her sweet lay,Most like what bards of heavenly spirits say,Sits she by fame through every region sung:My heart, which wisely unto her has clung—More wise, if there, in absence blest, it stay![Pg 214]Notes now the turf o'er which her soft steps stray,Now where her angel-eyes' mild beam is flung;Then throbs and murmurs, as they onward rove,"Ah! were he here, that man of wretched lot,Doom'd but to taste the bitterness of love!"She, conscious, smiles: our feelings tally not:Heartless am I, mere stone; heaven is thy grove—O dear delightful shade, O consecrated spot! Wrangham. Fresh, shaded hill! with flowers and verdure crown'd,Where, in fond musings, or with music sweet,To earth a heaven-sent spirit takes her seat!She who from all the world has honour found.Forsaking me, to her my fond heart bound—Divorce for aye were welcome as discreet—Notes where the turf is mark'd by her fair feet,Or from these eyes for her in sorrow drown'd,Then inly whispers as her steps advance,"Would for awhile that wreteh were here aloneWho pines already o'er his bitter lot."She conscious smiles. Not equal is the chance;An Eden thou, while I a heartless stone.O holy, happy, and beloved spot!