Poem by Mary Robinson

Sonnet 5. O! How Can Love

O! How can LOVE exulting Reason queil!
How fades each nobler passion from his gaze!
E’en Fame, that cherishes the Poet’s lays,
That fame, ill-fated Sappho lov’d so well.
Lost is the wretch, who in his fatal spell
Wastes the short Summer of delicious days,
And from the tranquil path of wisdom strays,
In passion’s thorny wild, forlorn to dwell.
O ye! who in that sacred Temple smile
Where holy Innocence resides enshrin’d;
Who fear not sorrow, and who know not guile,
Each thought compos’d, and ev’ry wish resign’d;
Tempt not the path where pleasure’s flow’ry wile
In sweet, but pois’nous fetters, holds the mind.

1. Elegy to the Memory of David Garrick, Esq.
2. Sonnet 14. Come, Soft Aeolian Harp
3. Sonnet 27. Oh! Ye Bright Stars
4. Sonnet 34. Venus! To Thee
5. The Confessor, a Sanctified Tale

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