Sonnet XXXV
SONNET XXXV.
Amor che meco al buon tempo ti stavi.
HE VENTS HIS SORROW TO ALL WHO WITNESSED HIS FORMER FELICITY.
Love, that in happier days wouldst meet me hereAlong these meads that nursed our kindred strains;And that old debt to clear which still remains,Sweet converse with the stream and me wouldst share:Ye flowers, leaves, grass, woods, grots, rills, gentle air,Low valleys, lofty hills, and sunny plains:The harbour where I stored my love-sick pains,And all my various chance, my racking care:Ye playful inmates of the greenwood shade;Ye nymphs, and ye that in the waves pursueThat life its cool and grassy bottom lends:—My days were once so fair; now dark and dreadAs death that makes them so. Thus the world throughOn each as soon as born his fate attends.
Anon., Ox., 1795. On these green banks in happier days I stray'dWith Love, who whisper'd many a tender tale;And the glad waters, winding through the dale,Heard the sweet eloquence fond Love display'd.You, purpled plain, cool grot, and arching glade;Ye hills, ye streams, where plays the silken gale;[Pg 263]Ye pathless wilds, you rock-encircled valeWhich oft have beard the tender plaints I made;Ye blue-hair'd nymphs, who ceaseless revel keep,In the cool bosom of the crystal deep;Ye woodland maids who climb the mountain's brow;Ye mark'd how joy once wing'd each hour so gay;Ah, mark how sad each hour now wears away!So fate with human bliss blends human woe!
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