Nature

Sonnet LXXI: Written at Weymouth in Winter

by Charlotte Smith 1749–1806

From Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems (1800)

NatureTime & Brevity

The chill waves whiten in the sharp North-east;
Cold, cold the night-blast comes, with sullen sound,
And black and gloomy, like my cheerless breast:
Frowns the dark pier and lonely sea-view round.
Yet a few months—and on the peopled strand
Pleasure shall all her varied forms display;
Nymphs lightly tread the bright reflecting sand,
And proud sails whiten all the summer bay:
Then, from these winds that whistle keen and bleak,
Music's delightful melodies shall float
O'er the blue waters; but 'tis mine to seek
Rather, some unfrequented shade, remote
From sights and sounds of gaiety——I mourn
All that gave me delight——Ah! never to return!

✦ ✦ ✦

A winter shore, black and gloomy 'like my cheerless breast', where the speaker looks back on a lost happiness 'never to return'.

MLA

Smith, Charlotte. “Sonnet LXXI: Written at Weymouth in Winter.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/smith/21/.

Chicago

Smith, Charlotte. “Sonnet LXXI: Written at Weymouth in Winter.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/smith/21/.

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