| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | IV. Elegiac Sonnet | | By Robert Treat Paine (1773–1811) |
| | Inscribed to the Memory of M. M. HAYS, Esq.
HERE sleep’st thou, Man of Soul! Thy spirit flown, | |
| How dark and tenantless its desert clay! | |
| Cold is that heart, which throbbed at sorrow’s moan, | |
| Untuned that tongue that charmed the social day. | |
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| Where now the Wit, by generous roughness graced? | 5 |
| Or Friendship’s accent, kindling as it fell? | |
| Or Bounty’s stealing foot, whose step untraced | |
| Had watched pale Want, and stored her famished cell? | |
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| Alas! ’t is all thou art! whose vigorous mind | |
| Inspiring force to Truth and Feeling gave, | 10 |
| Whose rich resources equal power combined, | |
| The gay to brighten, and instruct the grave! | |
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| Farewell! Adieu! Sweet peace thy vigils keep; | |
| For Pilgrim Virtue sojourns here to weep! | | | | |
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