Poem by Anna Seward

Sonnet 24. Behold the Day an image of the Year!

     TRANSLATION.

Behold the Day an image of the Year!
    The Year an image of our life's short span!
    Morn, like the Spring, with growing light began,
    Spring, like our Youth, with joy, and beauty fair;
Noon picturing Summer;—Summer's ardent sphere
    Manhood's gay portrait.—Eve, like Autumn, wan,
    Autumn resembling faded age in Man;
    Night, with its silence, and its darkness drear,
Emblem of Winter's frore and gloomy reign,
    When torpid lie the vegetative Powers;
    Winter, so shrunk, so cold, reminds us plain
Of the mute Grave, that o'er the dim Corse lours;
    There shall the Weary rest, nor ought remain
    To the pale Slumberer of Life's checker'd hours.

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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