Poem by Anna Seward

Sonnet 42. Lo! the Year's final Day!—Nature performs

Lo! the Year's final Day!—Nature performs
    Its obsequies with darkness, wind, and rain;
    But Man is jocund.—Hark! th' exultant strain
    From towers and steeples drowns the wintry storms!
No village spire but to the cots and farms,
    Right merrily, its scant and tuneless peal
    Rings round!—Ah! joy ungrateful!—mirth insane!
    Wherefore the senseless triumph, ye, who feel
This annual portion of brief Life the while
    Depart for ever?—Brought it no dear hours
    Of health and night-rest?—none that saw the smile
On lips belov'd?—O! with as gentle powers
    Will the next pass?—Ye pause!—yet careless hear
    Strike these last Clocks, that knell th' expiring Year!

1. Sonnet 30. That song again!—its sounds my bosom thrill
2. Sonnet 25. Fortunate Vale! exulting Hill! dear Plain!
3. Sonnet 84. While one sere leaf, that parting Autumn gilds
4. Sonnet 28. O, Genius! does thy Sun-resembling beam
5. Sonnet 52. Long has the pall of Midnight quench'd the scene

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