Thee, Queen of Shadows! — shall I still invoke,
Still love the scenes thy sportive pencil drew,
When on mine eyes the early radiance broke
Which shew’d the beauteous rather than the true!
Alas! long since those glowing tints are dead,
And now ’tis thine in darkest hues to dress
The spot where pale Experience hangs her head
O’er the sad grave of murder’d Happiness!
Thro’ thy false medium, then, no longer view’d,
May fancied pain and fancied pleasure fly,
And I, as from me all thy dreams depart,
Be to my wayward destiny subdued:
Nor seek perfection with a poet’s eye,
Nor suffer anguish with a poet’s heart!
(Charlotte Smith)
More Poetry from Charlotte Smith:
Charlotte Smith Poems based on Topics: Sadness, Happiness, Kings & Queens, Literature, Poets- The Emigrants: Book I (Charlotte Smith Poems)
- The Emigrants: Book II (Charlotte Smith Poems)
- The Forest Boy (Charlotte Smith Poems)
- The Origin Of Flattery (Charlotte Smith Poems)
- Occasional Address (Charlotte Smith Poems)
- A Descriptive Ode (Charlotte Smith Poems)