Poems (Southey)/Volume 1/Sonnet 3 (Not to thee, Bedford! mournful is the tale)

Poems
by Robert Southey
Sonnet 2 (Not to thee, Bedford! mournful is the tale)
4250743Poems — Sonnet 2 (Not to thee, Bedford! mournful is the tale)Robert Southey

SONNET III.



Not to thee, Bedford! mournful is the tale  Of days departed. Time in his career  Arraigns not thee that the neglected year Has past unheeded onward. To the vale Of years thou journiest; may the future road  Be pleasant as the past! and on my friend  Friendship and Love, best blessings! still attend'Till full of days he reach the calm abodeWhere Nature slumbers. Lovely is the age  Of Virtue: with such reverence we behold  The silver hairs, as some grey oak grown oldThat whilome mock'd the rushing tempest's rage,Now like the monument of strength decayedWith rarely-sprinkled leaves casting a trembling shade.1794.