Poem by Anna Seward

Sonnet 1. When Life's realities the Soul perceives

When Life's realities the Soul perceives
    Vain, dull, perchance corrosive, if she glows
    With rising energy, and open throws
    The golden gates of Genius, she achieves
His fairy clime delighted, and receives
    In those gay paths, deck'd with the thornless rose,
    Blest compensation.—Lo! with alter'd brows
    Lours the false World, and the fine Spirit grieves;
No more young Hope tints with her light and bloom
    The darkening Scene.—Then to ourselves we say,
    Come, bright Imagination, come! relume
Thy orient lamp; with recompensing ray
    Shine on the Mind, and pierce its gathering gloom
    With all the fires of intellectual Day!

1. Sonnet 8. Short is the time the oldest Being lives
2. Sonnet 42. Lo! the Year's final Day!—Nature performs
3. Sonnet 52. Long has the pall of Midnight quench'd the scene
4. Sonnet 20. Ah! might I range each hallow'd bower and glade
5. Sonnet 31. O, EVER DEAR! thy precious, vital powers

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