Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace Quotes

“When Death, or adverse Fortune's ruthless gale,
Tears our best hopes away, the wounded Heart
Exhausted, leans on all that can impart
The charm of Sympathy; her mutual wail
How soothing! never can her warm tears fail
To balm our bleeding grief's severest smart;
Nor wholly vain feign'd Pity's solemn art,
Tho' we should penetrate her sable veil.
Concern, e'en known to be assum'd, our pains
Respecting, kinder welcome far acquires
Than cold Neglect, or Mirth that Grief profanes.
Thus each faint Glow-worm of the Night conspires,
Gleaming along the moss'd and darken'd lanes,
To cheer the Gloom with her unreal fires.”
― Anna Seward, Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace

“Not the slow Hearse, where nod the sable plumes,     
The Parian Statue, bending o'er the Urn,     
The dark robe floating, the dejection worn     
On the dropt eye, and lip no smile illumes;
Not all this pomp of sorrow, that presumes     
It pays Affection's debt, is due concern     
To the FOR EVER ABSENT, tho' it mourn
Fashion's allotted time. If Time consumes,
While Life is ours, the precious vestal-flame     
Memory shou'd hourly feed;—if, thro' each day,     
She with whate'er we see, hear, think, or say,
Blend not the image of the vanish'd Frame,     
O! can the alien Heart expect to prove,
In worlds of light and life, a reunited love!”
― Anna Seward, Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace