Page:Odes on several subjects - Akenside (1745).djvu/27

ODE V.
Hymn to Chearfulness,
The Author Sick.

 

HOW thick the shades of evening close!
How pale the sky with weight of snows!
Haste, light the tapers, urge the fire,
And bid the joyless day retire!
——Alas, in vain I try within
To raise the dull dejected scene,
While rouz'd by grief these fiery pains
Tear the frail texture of my veins;
While winter's voice, that storms around,
And yon deep death-bell's groaning sound
Renew my mind's oppressive gloom,
'Till starting horror shakes the room!

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