Poems by Felicia Dorothea Browne/Sonnet to the Muse of Pity

by Felicia Hemans

SONNET TO THE MUSE OF PITY.

Oh! mistress of the melancholy song,
    I love to bend before thy sacred shrine;
To thee my fondest early vows belong,
    For pity's melting tenderness is thine.
Thine is the harp of wild expressive tone,
    ‘Tis thine to touch it with entrancing art;
    Till all thy numbers vibrate on the heart,
And sympathy delights thy powers to own.
Oh! sweetest muse of pity and of love,
    In artless song thy plaintive lyre I hail;
    Be mine to weep with thee o'er sorrow's tale,
And oft thy pleasing visions may I prove.
    "Thou mistress of the melancholy song,
    "To thee my fondest early vows belong."