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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.

Lichfield, March 1790

Anna Seward


Anna Seward's other poems:
  1. Sonnet 17. Ah! why have I indulg'd my dazzled sight
  2. Sonnet 15. The evening shines in May's luxuriant pride
  3. Sonnet 93. Yon soft Star, peering o'er the sable cloud
  4. Sonnet 65. Marcellus, since the ardors of my strain
  5. Sonnet 89. Yon late but gleaming Moon, in hoary light


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