Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

I. Rising Early to Read, on a Winter’s Morning

Anna Seward (1747–1809)

I LOVE to rise ere gleams the tardy light

(Winter’s pale dawn); and as warm fires illume,

And cheerful tapers shine around the room,

Through misty windows bend my musing sight,

Where, round the dusky lawn, the mansions white

With shutters closed, peer faintly through the gloom

That slow recedes; while yon gray spires assume,

Rising from their dark pile, an added height

By indistinctness given: then to decree

The grateful thoughts to God, ere they unfold

To friendship or the Muse, or seek with glee

Wisdom’s rich page. O hours more worth than gold,

By whose blest use we lengthen life, and, free

From drear decays of age, outlive the old.