Poem by Charlotte Turner Smith

Sonnet 63. The Gossamer

O'er faded heath-flowers spun, or thorny furze,
  The filmy Gossamer is lightly spread;
Waving in every sighing air that stirs,
  As Fairy fingers had entwined the thread:
A thousand trembling orbs of lucid dew
  Spangle the texture of the fairy loom,
As if soft Sylphs, lamenting as they flew,
  Had wept departed Summer's transient bloom:
But the wind rises, and the turf receives
  The glittering web: — So, evanescent, fade
Bright views that Youth with sanguine heart believes:
  So vanish schemes of bliss, by Fancy made;
Which, fragile as the fleeting dews of morn,
Leave but the wither'd heath, and barren thorn!

1. Sonnet 16. From Petrarch (YE vales and woods! fair scenes of happier hours!)
2. Sonnet 70. On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic
3. Sonnet 43. The Unhappy Exile
4. Sonnet 51. Supposed to have been written in the Hebrides
5. Sonnet 83. The Sea View

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