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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ELEGIAC SONNET: 79. TO THE GODDESS OF BOTANY by CHARLOTTE SMITH

Poet Analysis

First Line: OF FOLLY WEARY, SHRINKING FROM THE VIEW
Last Line: OR STREAM FROM CORAL ROCKS BENEATH THE OCEAN WAVES.
Subject(s): BOTANY AND BOTANISTS;

Of Folly weary, shrinking from the view
Of Violence and Fraud, allow'd to take
All peace from humble life; I would forsake
Their haunts for ever, and, sweet Nymph! with you
Find shelter; where my tired, and tear-swoln eyes,
Among your silent shades of soothing hue,
Your "bells and florets of unnumber'd dyes"
Might rest -- And learn the bright varieties
That from your lovely hands are fed with dew;
And every veined leaf, that trembling sighs
In mead or woodland; or in wilds remote,
Or lurk with mosses in the humid caves,
Mantle the cliffs, on dimpling rivers float,
Or stream from coral rocks beneath the Ocean waves.



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