Poem by Charlotte Turner Smith

Sonnet 10. To Mrs. G***

AH! why will Mem'ry with officious care
The long lost visions of my days renew?
Why paint the vernal landscape green and fair,
When life's gay dawn was opening to my view?
Ah! wherefore bring those moments of delight,
When with my Anna, on the southern shore,
I thought the future, as the present bright?
Ye dear delusions!--ye return no more!
Alas! how diff'rent does the truth appear,
From the warm picture youth's rash hand portrays!
How fades the scene, as we approach it near,
And pain and sorrow strike--how many ways!
Yet of that tender heart, ah! still retain
A share for me--and I will not complain! 

1. Sonnet 32. To Melancholy. Written on the Banks of the Arun, October, 1785
2. Sonnet 26. To the River Arun
3. Sonnet 55. The Return of the Nightingale. Written in May, 1791
4. Sonnet 15. From Petrarch (WHERE the green leaves exclude the summer beam)
5. Sonnet 63. The Gossamer

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