Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Phantasmion. A Fairy Tale (1837). XI. “I Thought by Tears”

Sarah Coleridge (1802–1850)

I THOUGHT by tears thy soul to move

Since smiles had proved in vain;

But I from thee no smiles of love,

Nor tears of pity gain:

Now, now I could not smile perforce

A sceptred queen to please:

Yet tears will take th’ accustom’d course

Till time their fountain freeze.

My life is dedicate to thee,

My service wholly thine;

But what fair fruit can grace the tree

Till suns vouchsafe to shine?

Thou art my sun, thy looks are light,

O cast me not in shade

Beam forth ere summer takes its flight,

And all my honours fade.

When torn by sudden gusty flaw,

The fragile harp lies mute,

Its tenderest tones the wind can draw

From many another lute;

But when this beating heart lies still,

Each chord relax’d in death,

What other shall so deeply thrill,

So tremble at thy breath?