| Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Phantasmion. A Fairy Tale (1837)
XI. “I Thought by Tears” | | By Sarah Coleridge (1802–1850) |
| | (From Chapter XXXI.)
I THOUGHT by tears thy soul to move | |
| Since smiles had proved in vain; | |
| But I from thee no smiles of love, | |
| Nor tears of pity gain: | |
| Now, now I could not smile perforce | 5 |
| A sceptred queen to please: | |
| Yet tears will take th’ accustom’d course | |
| Till time their fountain freeze. | |
| |
| My life is dedicate to thee, | |
| My service wholly thine; | 10 |
| But what fair fruit can grace the tree | |
| Till suns vouchsafe to shine? | |
| Thou art my sun, thy looks are light, | |
| O cast me not in shade | |
| Beam forth ere summer takes its flight, | 15 |
| And all my honours fade. | |
| |
| When torn by sudden gusty flaw, | |
| The fragile harp lies mute, | |
| Its tenderest tones the wind can draw | |
| From many another lute; | 20 |
| But when this beating heart lies still, | |
| Each chord relax’d in death, | |
| What other shall so deeply thrill, | |
| So tremble at thy breath? | | | | |
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