Poems (Southey)/Volume 1/Sonnet 7 - To the Evening Rainbow
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For works with similar titles, see Sonnet.
SONNET VII.
To the EVENING RAINBOW.
Mild arch of promise! on the evening sky
Thou shinest fair with many a lovely ray
Each in the other melting. Much mine eye
Delights to linger on thee; for the day,
Changeful and many-weather'd, seem'd to smile
Flashing brief splendor thro' its clouds awhile,
That deepened dark anon and fell in rain:
But pleasant it is now to pause, and view
Thy various tints of frail and watery hue,
And think the storm shall not return again.
Such is the smile that Piety bestows
On the good man's pale check, when he in peace
Departing gently from a world of woes,
Anticipates the realm where sorrows cease.
1794.
Thou shinest fair with many a lovely ray
Each in the other melting. Much mine eye
Delights to linger on thee; for the day,
Changeful and many-weather'd, seem'd to smile
Flashing brief splendor thro' its clouds awhile,
That deepened dark anon and fell in rain:
But pleasant it is now to pause, and view
Thy various tints of frail and watery hue,
And think the storm shall not return again.
Such is the smile that Piety bestows
On the good man's pale check, when he in peace
Departing gently from a world of woes,
Anticipates the realm where sorrows cease.
1794.