| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. To the Setting Moon | | By Richard Bingham Davis (1771–1799) |
| | | MUSING in meditation’s charméd dream, | |
| Joyless I see thy placid radiance fade, | |
| Hid by the dusky hills, whose humid shade | |
| Quenches thy lustre floating in the stream. | |
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| How great the contrast from thy cheerful light! | 5 |
| How deep, how silent is the sudden gloom! | |
| Still, as the sullen vapors of the night, | |
| Dark, as the shade that wraps the haunted tomb! | |
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| ’T is thus thy phantoms, Hope, delusive sweep | |
| Along the shades of life, while fancy dwells | 10 |
| Fond on the prospect,—sudden burst the spells, | |
| And leave the disappointed wretch to weep; | |
| While the fond memory of past delight | |
| Deepens the gloom of desperation’s night! | | | | |
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