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Sonnet X.

By Robert Southey

Topics: classic

How darkly o'er yon far-off mountain frowns         The gather'd tempest! from that lurid cloud         The deep-voiced thunders roll, aweful and loud     Tho' distant; while upon the misty downs     Fast falls in shadowy streaks the pelting rain.         I never saw so terrible a storm!     Perhaps some way-worn traveller in vain         Wraps his torn raiment round his shivering form     Cold even as Hope within him! I the while     Pause me in sadness tho' the sunbeams smile         Cheerily round me. Ah that thus my lot     Might be with Peace and Solitude assign'd,         Where I might from some little quiet cot,     Sigh for the crimes and miseries of mankind!

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"How darkly o'er yon far-off mountain frowns..."

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Author:Robert Southey

"How darkly o'er yon far-off mountain frowns..." by Robert Southey

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Robert Southey

About Robert Southey

Robert Southey (1774–1843) was an English Romantic poet, historian, and biographer who served as Poet Laureate from 1813 to 1843. His poems include "The Battle of Blenheim" and "The Inchcape Rock," and he was a member of the Lake Poets alongside Wordsworth and Coleridge.

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"Enter this cavern Stranger! the ascent     Is long..."

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