Book 2 — ON A LATE CONNUBIAL RUPTURE IN HIGH LIFE[152:1]
Reading edition
ON A LATE CONNUBIAL RUPTURE IN HIGH LIFE[152:1]
[PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES]
I sigh, fair injur'd stranger! for thy fate; But what shall sighs avail thee? thy poor heart, 'Mid all the 'pomp and circumstance' of state, Shivers in nakedness. Unbidden, start Sad recollections of Hope's garish dream, 5 That shaped a seraph form, and named it Love, Its hues gay-varying, as the orient beam Varies the neck of Cytherea's dove. To one soft accent of domestic joy Poor are the shouts that shake the high-arch'd dome; 10 Those plaudits that thy public path annoy, Alas! they tell thee—Thou'rt a wretch at home! O then retire, and weep! Their very woes Solace the guiltless. Drop the pearly flood On thy sweet infant, as the full-blown rose, 15 Surcharg'd with dew, bends o'er its neighbouring bud. And ah! that Truth some holy spell might lend To lure thy Wanderer from the Syren's power; Then bid your souls inseparably blend Like two bright dew-drops meeting in a flower. 20
1796.
FOOTNOTES:
LINENOTES:
Title] To an Unfortunate Princess MS. Letter, July 4, 1796.
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might] could MS. Letter, 1796.
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thy] the Felix Farley's, &c.
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meeting] bosomed MS. Letter, 1796.