English Poetry. Mary Robinson. Sonnet to Evening. Мэри Робинсон.

Mary Robinson (Мэри Робинсон)

Sonnet to Evening

[Written under a tree in the woods of St. Amand, 
in Flanders.]


SWEET BALMY HOUR! ­dear to the pensive mind,
Oft have I watch’d thy dark and weeping shade,
Oft have I hail’d thee in the dewy glade,
And drop’d a tear of SYMPATHY refin’d. 

When humming bees, hid in their golden bow’rs,
Sip the pure nectar of MAY’S blushing rose,
Or faint with noon-day toils, their limbs repose,
In Baths of Essence stol’n from sunny flow’rs. 

Oft do I seek thy shade dear with’ring tree,
Sad emblem of my OWN disast’rous state;
Doom’d in the spring of life, alas ! like THEE
To fade, and droop beneath the frowns of FATE;
Like THEE, may Heaven to ME the meed bestow,
To shelter Sorrow’s tear, and sooth THE CHILD OF WOE.

Mary Robinson’s other poems:

1. To Cesario
2. Stanzas to Love
3. Sonnet to Amicus
4. The Granny Grey, a Love Tale
5. The Mistletoe

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