Poem by Mary Robinson

Stanzas

WHEN fragrant gales and summer show’rs
Call’d forth the sweetly scented flow’rs;
When ripen’d sheaves of golden grain,
Strew’d their rich treasures o’er the plain;
When the full grape did nectar yield,
In tepid drops of purple hue; 
When the thick grove, and thirsty field,
Drank the soft show’r and bloom’d a-new; 
O then my joyful heart did say, 
”Sure this is Nature’s Holy-day!” 

But when the yellow leaf did fade,
And every gentle flow’r decay’d;
When whistling winds, and drenching rain,
Swept with rude force the naked plain;
When o’er the desolated scene,
I saw the drifted snow descend; 
And sadness darken’d all the green,
And Nature’s triumphs seem’d to end; 
O! then, my mourning heart did say,
”Thus Youth shall vanish, Life decay.” 

When Beauty blooms, and Fortune smiles, 
And wealth the easy breast beguiles; 
When pleasure from her downy wings,
Her soft bewitching incense flings;
THEN, Friends look kind­and round the heart
The brightest flames of passion move,
False Flatt’ry’s soothing strains impart
The warmest Friendship­fondest Love;
But when capricious FORTUNE flies,
Then FRIENDSHIP fades;­and PASSION dies.

1. Stanzas Written under an Oak in Windsor Forest
2. Male Fashions for 1799
3. Sonnet 41. Yes, I Will Go
4. Ode to Envy
5. Sonnet 40. On the Low Margin

Laura Temple Stanzas ("Now brightly smiles the cloudless sky")

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