TO THE SETTING SUN.
I.
Ah! whither fli’est thou, fair retiring light—
Why fade those rays that shone ’ere while so bright?
Now o’er the wave thy sinking glories stream,
And now---ah now!---we lose thy latest beam.
II.
Dost thou to Neptune’s pearly courts repair,
And view the lovely Nereids sporting there;
With thy fair beams illume the coral groves,
Where Triton’s wander and where Thetis roves.
III.
Or dost thou shed in other worlds thy ray,
And give to other climes a new-born day?
What joy, what transports wait thy glad return,
When thro’ the clouds of Night breaks forth the Morn.
IV.
Yet those there are who hate thy cheering beam---
In whose dark breasts no rays of pleasure gleam:
Who, from thy bright approach unwelcome run,
“And sigh in shades, and sicken at the sun.”
V.
Thus once was I, with heavy grief opprest,
The morn no pleasure gave, the night no rest;
Till cheering Friendship lent her beaming ray,
And all was pleasure with the opening day.
CLARA.
New-York, Oct. 12, 1796.
The quoted line “And sigh in shades, and sicken at the sun” is from Shenstone, Elegy 26 (“I sigh in...”).