"For thou to me canst sov'reign bliss impart, / Thy mind my empire--and my throne thy heart."
— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by R. Noble
Date
1791, 1792
Metaphor
"For thou to me canst sov'reign bliss impart, / Thy mind my empire--and my throne thy heart."
Metaphor in Context
On this lone island, whose unfruitful breast
Feeds but the summer-shepherd's little flock
With scanty herbage from the half-cloath'd 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 sov'reign bliss impart,
Thy mind my empire--and my throne thy heart.
(I, li, p. 51)
Feeds but the summer-shepherd's little flock
With scanty herbage from the half-cloath'd 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 sov'reign bliss impart,
Thy mind my empire--and my throne thy heart.
(I, li, p. 51)
Categories
Provenance
Found again searching "empire" and "mind" in HDIS (Poetry); And again searching "heart" and "empire"; and again reading
Citation
At least 9 entries in ESTC (1791, 1792, 1795, 1797, 1800).
Reading, and comparing, The Poems of Charlotte Smith, ed. Stuart Curran (New York and Oxford: OUP, 1993).
Sonnet LI is reprinted from Celestina. A Novel (London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791).
Text from Elegiac Sonnets, By Charlotte Smith, 6th edition (London: Printed by R. Noble, 1792). ["With Additional Sonnets and Other Poems"] <Link to ECCO>
See also Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems, by Charlotte Smith, 9th edition, 2 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1800). <Link to volume I in Google Books> <Link to volume II in ECCO> -- Note, Curran uses this edition as his base text for Sonnets 1 through 59.
Reading, and comparing, The Poems of Charlotte Smith, ed. Stuart Curran (New York and Oxford: OUP, 1993).
Sonnet LI is reprinted from Celestina. A Novel (London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791).
Text from Elegiac Sonnets, By Charlotte Smith, 6th edition (London: Printed by R. Noble, 1792). ["With Additional Sonnets and Other Poems"] <Link to ECCO>
See also Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems, by Charlotte Smith, 9th edition, 2 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1800). <Link to volume I in Google Books> <Link to volume II in ECCO> -- Note, Curran uses this edition as his base text for Sonnets 1 through 59.
Date of Entry
07/09/2004
Date of Review
10/06/2011
