Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team POEMS by Robert Southey 1797 GODDESS of the LYRE! with thee comes Majestic TRUTH; and where TRUTH deigns to come, Her sister LIBERTY will not be far. Akenside. SONNET. With wayworn feet a Pilgrim woe-begone Life's upward road I journeyed many a day, And hymning many a sad yet soothing lay Beguil'd my wandering with the charms of song. Lonely my heart and rugged was my way, Yet often pluck'd I as I past along The wild and simple flowers of Poesy, And as beseem'd the wayward Fancy's child Entwin'd each random weed that pleas'd mine eye. Accept the wreath, BELOVED! it is wild And rudely garlanded; yet scorn not thou The humble offering, where the sad rue weaves 'Mid gayer flowers its intermingled leaves, And I have twin'd the myrtle for thy brow. I have collected in this Volume the productions of very distant periods. The lyric pieces were written in earlier youth; I now think the Ode the most worthless species of composition as well as the most difficult, and should never again attempt it, even if my future pursuits were such as allowed leisure for poetry. The poems addressed to the heart and the understanding are those of my maturer judgment. The Inscriptions will be found to differ from the Greek simplicity of Akenside's in the point that generally concludes them. The Sonnets were written first, or I would have adopted a different title, and avoided the shackle of rhyme and the confinement to fourteen lines. CONTENTS