ELEGIAC SONNETS.
51
SONNET LI.
FROM THE NOVEL OF CELESTINA.
SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN THE HEBRIDES.
ON this lone island, whose unfruitful breast
Feeds but the Summer-shepherd's little flock
With scanty herbage from the half-clothed rock,
Where osprays, cormorants, and sea-mews rest;
Even in a scene so desolate and rude
I could with thee for months and years be blest;
And of thy tenderness and love possest,
Find all my world in this wild solitude!
When summer suns these northern seas illume,
With thee admire the light's reflected charms,
And when drear Winter spreads his cheerless gloom,
Still find Elysium in thy shelt'ring arms:
For thou to me canst sovereign bliss impart,
Thy mind my empire—and my throne thy heart.
