Sonnet Occasioned by the Second of Henry Kirke White
By Capel Lofft
Yes, fled already is thy vital fire,
And the fair promise of thy early bloom
Lost, in youth’s morn extinct; sunk in the tomb;
Mute in the grave sleeps thy enchanted lyre!
And is it vainly that our souls aspire?
Falsely does the presaging heart presume
That we shall live beyond life’s cares and gloom;
Grasps it eternity with high desire,
But to imagine bliss, feel woe, and die;
Leaving survivors to worse pangs than death?
Not such the sanction of the Eternal Mind.
The harmonious order of the starry sky,
And awful revelation’s angel breath,
Assure these hopes their full effect shall find.
25th December, 1806.