SWEET Child of Sensibility!
Haste thee from mirth and noise and folly,
And o’er sad scenes of melancholy,
Come, and muse, and mourn with me.
The early spring say hast thou seen,
All nature smiling at her birth,
Bestrew the moisten’d lap of earth
With fairest flowers and herbage green:
And o’er the branches late so bare,
The swelling buds profusely spread,
And clust’ring blossoms gaily shed,
Fair promise of a fruitful year-
Then from the dark o’er-loaded skies
Hast seen the heavy showers descend,
Where snow and rattling hailsto nes blend,
And sudden gusts tempestuous rise-
Then comes a keen destroying frost;
Earth’s vernal mantle faded lies,
The wither’d foliage droops and dies,
The blossom and the fruit are lost.
This hast thou seen, and sigh’d to see?
Then come, and teach thy tears to flow
O’er deepest scenes of human woe,
Sweet Child of Sensibility!
Say hast thou known some gen’rous youth,
Of blameless manners, ardent mind,
Where native sense and learning join’d,
Possest of talents, virtue, truth,
The hope of many a future year
Then, seen disease’s fatal dart
Fix its deep venom in his heart,
And ruthless stop his bright career-
Let love and friendship weep with thee,
T’ embalm the turf, where low is laid
The youth who virtue’s charms display’d,
Oh Child of Sensibility;
Hast thou with admiration seen
Some beauteous maid, the village toast,
Her aged parents’ hope and boast,
Good-humour in her smiling mien,
With female loveliness of form,
Each mental excellence combin’d,
Then, hast thou seen that gentle mind
Despairing sink beneath the storm;
Her hopes, her charms, her reason gone;
By some strong secret grief distrest,
Some overwhelming woe opprest,
Her gentle manners left alone;
A harmless maniac, sad and wild,
Regardless of her mother’s tears,
Unconscious what she feels or fears,
For her poor wand’ring wayward child.
This proof of instability
In reason, well might fill with woe
Thy mind, and bid thy tears o’erflow,
Sweet Child of Sensibility!
Say, hast thou known in blooming grace,
A lovely active ardent boy,
His happy father’s dearest joy,
Expression in his artless face,
His dawning faculties of mind
Expanding like the buds of spring,
His fancy ever on the wing
New scenes of knowledge still to find;
But when strong passions gain’d the sway,
When reason ‘gainst th’ impetuous train,
And conscience pleaded, but in vain-
While vice he only would obey-
Till of that once ingenuous mind,
In virtue’s sacred precepts train’d,
No semblance and no trace remain’d,
Nor even a hope was left behind;
If such sad ruin doom’d to see-
Then may thy throbbing bosom heave,
Then weep, for thou hast cause to grieve,
Oh Child of Sensibility!
(Isabella Lickbarrow)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Mind Poems, Sadness Poems, Faces Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Fairness Poems, Hope Poems, Fear Poems, Spring Poems, Wisdom & Knowledge PoemsBased on Keywords: bestrew, nes, good-humour, instability