Sonnet LXXVIII
Sophia tempts me to her social walls,
That ’mid the vast Metropolis arise,
Where Splendor dazzles, and each Pleasure vies
In soft allurement; and each Science calls
To philosophic Domes, harmonious Halls,
And 1storied Galleries. With duteous sighs,
Filial and kind, and with averted eyes,
I meet the gay temptation, as it falls
From a seducing pen.—Here—here I stay,
Fix’d by Affection’s power; nor entertain
One latent wish, that might persuade to stray
From my ag’d Nurseling, in his life’s dim wane;
But, like the needle, by the magnet’s sway,
My constant, trembling residence maintain.
Notes
1: “And storied windows richly dight.”—Il Penseroso.