Sonnet LI

TO SYLVIA

ON HER APPROACHING NUPTIALS.

Hope comes to Youth, gliding thro' azure skies

With amaranth crown:—her full robe, snowy white,

Floats on the gale, and our exulting sight

Marks it afar.—From waning Life she flies,

Wrapt in a mist, covering her starry eyes

With her fair hand.—But now, in floods of light,

She meets thee, Sylvia, and with glances, bright

As lucid streams, when Spring's clear mornings rise.

From Hymen's kindling torch, a yellow ray

The shining texture of her spotless vest

Gilds;—and the Month that gives the early day

The scent odōrous, and the carol blest,

Pride of the rising Year, enamour'd May,

Paints its redundant folds with florets gay.