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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Charlotte Smith (1749–1806)

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

VI. “Out of Doors While the Hamlet Is Sleeping”

Charlotte Smith (1749–1806)

WHILE thus I wander, cheerless and unblest,

And find in change of place no change of pain,

In tranquil sleep the village laborers rest,

And taste repose that I pursue in vain.

Hushed is the hamlet now; and faintly gleam

The dying embers from the casement low

Of the thatched cottage, while the Moon’s wan beam

Lends a new lustre to the dazzling snow.

O’er the cold waste, amid the freezing night,

Scarce heeding whither, desolate I stray.

For me, pale eye of evening! thy soft light

Leads to no happy home; my weary way

Ends but in dark vicissitude of care:

I only fly from doubt to meet despair.