Poem by Anna Seward

Sonnet 97. Thou silent Door of our eternal sleep

    TO A COFFIN-LID.

Thou silent Door of our eternal sleep,
    Sickness, and pain, debility, and woes,
    All the dire train of ills Existence knows,
    Thou shuttest out FOR EVER!—Why then weep
This fix'd tranquillity,—so long!—so deep!
    In a dear Father's clay-cold Form?—where rose
    No energy, enlivening Health bestows,
    Thro' many a tedious year, that us'd to creep
In languid deprivation; while the flame
    Of intellect, resplendent once confess'd,
    Dark, and more dark, each passing day became.
Now that angelic lights the Soul invest,
    Calm let me yield to thee a joyless Frame,
    Thou silent Door of everlasting Rest.

1. Sonnet 25. Fortunate Vale! exulting Hill! dear Plain!
2. Sonnet 45. From Possibility's dim chaos sprung
3. Sonnet 2. The Future, and its gifts, alone we prize
4. Sonnet 71. While Summer Roses all their glory yield
5. Sonnet 58. Not the slow Hearse, where nod the sable plumes

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