IV

IV [1] 

When glowing Phoebus quits the weeping earth
What splendid visions rise upon the sight!
Fancy with transient charms and colours bright
To changing forms in Heav'n's gay scene gives birth:
But soon the melting beauties disappear,5
And fade like those, which in life's early bloom
Hope bade me prize; and the approaching gloom,
These tints of sadness, and these shades of fear,
Resemble most that melancholy hour
Which, with a silent, and resistless power,10
Shrouded my joys bright beam in dreary night.
'Till Memory marks each scene which shone so gay:
As the dark plains, beneath the Moon's soft light
Again reveal'd, reflect a mellowing ray.

Notes

[1] EDITOR'S NOTE: "When glowing Phoebus quits the weeping earth" is printed as "Sonnet" in Psyche, with Other Poems (undated). BACK