Poem by Mary Robinson

Stanzas

WHEN fragrant gales and summer show’rs
Call’d forth the sweetly scented flow’rs;
When ripen’d sheaves of golden grain,
Strew’d their rich treasures o’er the plain;
When the full grape did nectar yield,
In tepid drops of purple hue; 
When the thick grove, and thirsty field,
Drank the soft show’r and bloom’d a-new; 
O then my joyful heart did say, 
”Sure this is Nature’s Holy-day!” 

But when the yellow leaf did fade,
And every gentle flow’r decay’d;
When whistling winds, and drenching rain,
Swept with rude force the naked plain;
When o’er the desolated scene,
I saw the drifted snow descend; 
And sadness darken’d all the green,
And Nature’s triumphs seem’d to end; 
O! then, my mourning heart did say,
”Thus Youth shall vanish, Life decay.” 

When Beauty blooms, and Fortune smiles, 
And wealth the easy breast beguiles; 
When pleasure from her downy wings,
Her soft bewitching incense flings;
THEN, Friends look kind­and round the heart
The brightest flames of passion move,
False Flatt’ry’s soothing strains impart
The warmest Friendship­fondest Love;
But when capricious FORTUNE flies,
Then FRIENDSHIP fades;­and PASSION dies.

1. Sonnet 23. To Aetna’s Scorching Sands
2. To the Muse of Poetry
3. Sonnet 31. Far O’er the Waves
4. The Bee and the Butterfly
5. The Lascar

Laura Temple Stanzas ("Now brightly smiles the cloudless sky")

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