CAPTIVITY--MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

          "AS the cold aspect of a sunless way
          Strikes through the Traveller's frame with deadlier chill,
          Oft as appears a grove, or obvious hill,
          Glistening with unparticipated ray,
          Or shining slope where he must never stray;
          So joys, remembered without wish or will
          Sharpen the keenest edge of present ill,--
          On the crushed heart a heavier burthen lay.
          Just Heaven, contract the compass of my mind
          To fit proportion with my altered state!                    10
          Quench those felicities whose light I find
          Reflected in my bosom all too late!--
          O be my spirit, like my thraldom, strait;
          And, like mine eyes that stream with sorrow, blind!"
                                                              1819.