Poem by Anna Seward

Sonnet 79. While unsuspecting trust in all that wears

While unsuspecting trust in all that wears
    Virtue's bright semblance, stimulates my heart
    To find its dearest pleasures in the part
    Taken in other's joys; yielding to theirs
Its own desires, each latent wish that bears
    The selfish stamp, O! let me shun the art
    Taught by smooth Flattery in her courtly mart,
    Where Simulation's studied smile ensnares!
Scorn that exterior varnish for the Mind,
    Which, while it polishes the manners, veils
    In showy clouds the soul.—E'en thus we find
Glass, o'er whose surface clear the pencil steals,
    Grown less transparent, tho' with colours gay,
    Sheds but the darken'd and ambiguous ray.

1. Sonnet 32. Behold him now his genuine colours wear
2. Sonnet 41. Since dark December shrouds the transient day
3. Sonnet 36. Now on hills, rocks, and streams, and vales, and plains
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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