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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ELEGIAC SONNET: 56. CAPTIVE ESCAPED IN WILDS OF AMERICA by CHARLOTTE SMITH

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF, BY HIS TORTURING, SAVAGE FOES UNTRACED
Last Line: AS I, MY HARRIET, BLESS THY FRIENDSHIP'S CHEERING LIGHT.
Subject(s): O'NEILL, HENRIETTA (1758-1793); UNITED STATES; AMERICA;

If, by his torturing, savage foes untraced,
The breathless Captive gain some trackless glade,
Yet hears the war-whoop howl along the waste,
And dreads the reptile-monsters of the shade;
The giant reeds that murmur round the flood,
Seem to conceal some hideous form beneath;
And every hollow blast that shakes the wood,
Speaks to his trembling heart of woe and death.
With horror fraught, and desolate dismay,
On such a wanderer falls the starless night;
But if, far streaming, a propitious ray
Leads to some amicable fort his sight,
He hails the beam benign that guides his way,
As I, my Harriet, bless thy friendship's cheering light.



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