Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELEGIAC SONNET: 61. SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN AMERICA, by CHARLOTTE SMITH


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ELEGIAC SONNET: 61. SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN AMERICA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ill-omen'd bird! Whose cries portentous float
Last Line: When, from ideal ill, the enfeebled spirit fails!
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Charlotte Turner
Subject(s): Canada; Canadians


Ill-omen'd bird! whose cries portentous float
O'er yon savannah with the mournful wind;
While, as the Indian hears your piercing note,
Dark dread of future evil fills his mind;
Wherefore with early lamentation break
The dear delusive visions of repose?
Why from so short felicity awake
My wounded senses to substantial woes?
O'er my sick soul thus rous'd from transient rest,
Pale Superstition sheds her influence drear,
And to my shuddering fancy would suggest
Thou com'st to speak of every woe I fear.
Ah! Reason little o'er the soul prevails,
When, from ideal ill, the enfeebled spirit fails!





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