IF, by his torturing, savage foes untraced, <br />The breathless captive gain some trackless glade, <br />Yet hears the war-whoop howl along the waste, <br />And dreads the reptile-monsters of the shade; <br />The giant reeds that murmur round the flood, <br />Seem to conceal some hideous form beneath; <br />And every hollow blast that shakes the wood, <br />Speaks to his trembling heart of woe and death. <br />With horror fraught, and desolate dismay, <br />On such a wanderer falls the starless night; <br />But if, far streaming, a propitious ray <br />Leads to some amicable fort his sight, <br />He hails the beam benign that guides his way, <br />As I, my Harriet, bless thy friendship's cheering light.<br /><br />Charlotte Smith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-lvi-4/
