Sonnet XLVIII
Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Volume 1, The Ninth Edition
NO more my wearied soul attempts to strayFrom sad reality and vain regret,Nor courts enchanting Fiction to allaySorrows that Sense refuses to forget:For of Calamity so long the prey,Imagination now has lost her powers,Nor will her fairy loom again essayTo dress Affliction in a robe of flowers.But if no more the bowers of Fancy bloom,Let one superior scene attract my view,Where Heaven's pure rays the sacred spot illume,Let thy loved hand with palm and amarath strewThe mournful path approaching to the tomb,While Faith's consoling voice endears the friendly gloom.