How sweet the tuneful bells' responsive peal! <br />As when, at opening morn, the fragrant breeze <br />Breathes on the trembling sense of wan disease, <br />So piercing to my heart their force I feel! <br />And hark! with lessening cadence now they fall, <br />And now, along the white and level tide, <br />They fling their melancholy music wide, <br />Bidding me many a tender thought recall <br />Of summer-days, and those delightful years <br />When by my native streams, in life's fair prime, <br />The mournful magic of their mingling chime <br />First waked my wond'ring childhood into tears;— <br />But seeming now, when all those days are o'er, <br />The sounds of joy, once heard, and heard no more.<br /><br />William Lisle Bowles<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-at-ostend-july-22nd-1787/
