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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Mrs. Mary Noel McDonald

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

III. June. 3. “Alas! it may not be”

Mrs. Mary Noel McDonald

Succession of Sonnets

ALAS! it may not be; I am forbid

By a stern duty, and my feet must press,

Day after day, in toil and weariness,

The city’s streets; while in my heart is hid

Strange, passionate yearnings for a brighter spot.

My childhood’s home is stealing on my sight;

In native loveliness all unforgot,

Fancy reveals it. Well I know the blight

Of time has dimmed its beauty; yet to me

It ever rises with the summer day,

Decked by thy hand in fair and fresh array;

And on its verdant slopes I long to be

A happy child, as careless and as gay,

As erst in thy bright reign I laughed the hours away.