Poem by Anna Seward

Sonnet 51. Hope comes to Youth, gliding thro' azure skies

    TO SYLVIA
    ON HER APPROACHING NUPTIALS.

Hope comes to Youth, gliding thro' azure skies
    With amaranth crown:—her full robe, snowy white,
    Floats on the gale, and our exulting sight
    Marks it afar.—From waning Life she flies,
Wrapt in a mist, covering her starry eyes
    With her fair hand.—But now, in floods of light,
    She meets thee, Sylvia, and with glances, bright
    As lucid streams, when Spring's clear mornings rise.
From Hymen's kindling torch, a yellow ray
    The shining texture of her spotless vest
    Gilds;—and the Month that gives the early day
The scent odōrous1, and the carol blest,
    Pride of the rising Year, enamour'd May,
    Paints its redundant folds with florets gay.

    ——“the bright consummate flower
Spirit odōrous breathes.”

1. Sonnet 65. Marcellus, since the ardors of my strain
2. Sonnet 53. The knell of Whitehead tolls!—his cares are past
3. Sonnet 56. What bashful wildness in those crystal eyes
4. Sonnet 98. Since my griev'd mind some energy regains
5. Sonnet 38. If he whose bosom with no transport swells

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