Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Volume 2, The Second Edition/Sonnet XCI

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET XCI.

REFLECTIONS ON SOME DRAWINGS OF PLANTS.

I CAN in groups these mimic flowers compose,
    These bells and golden eyes, embathed in dew;
Catch the soft blush that warms the early Rose,
   Or the pale Iris cloud with veins of blue;
Copy the scallop’d leaves, and downy stems,
   And bid the pencil's varied shades arrest
Spring's humid buds, and Summer's musky gems:
   But, save the portrait on my bleeding breast,
I have no semblance of that form adored,
   That form, expressive of a soul divine,
   So early blighted; and while life is mine,
With fond regret, and ceaseless grief deplored–
   That grief, my angel! with too faithful art
   Enshrines thy image in thy Mother's heart.