The text comes from Elegiac Sonnets (1797–1800), vol. 1.
| Thee, Queen of Shadows! — shall I still invoke, | ||
| Still love the scenes thy sportive pencil° drew, | paintbrush | |
| When on mine eyes the early radiance broke | ||
| Which shew’d° the beauteous rather than the true! | showed | |
| 5 | Alas! long since those glowing tints are dead, | |
| And now ’tis thine in darkest hues to dress | ||
| The spot where pale Experience hangs her head | ||
| O’er the sad grave of murder’d Happiness! | ||
| Thro’ thy false medium, then, no longer view’d, | ||
| 10 | May fancied° pain and fancied pleasure fly, | imagined |
| And I, as from me all thy dreams depart, | ||
| Be to my wayward destiny subdued: | ||
| Nor seek perfection with a poet’s eye, | ||
| Nor suffer anguish with a poet’s heart! |