O Solitude! Z.406a

O Solitude
 O solitude, my sweetest choice!
 Places devoted to the night,
 Remote from tumult and from noise,
 How ye my restless thoughts delight!
 O solitude, my sweetest choice!
 O heav'ns! what content is mine
 To see these trees, which have appear'd
 From the nativity of time,
 And which all ages have rever'd,
 To look today as fresh and green
 As when their beauties first were seen.
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 O, how agreeable a sight
 These hanging mountains do appear,
 Which th' unhappy would invite
 To finish all their sorrows here,
 
 When their hard fate makes them endure
 Such woes as only death can cure.
 O, how I solitude adore!
 That element of noblest wit,
 Where I have learnt Apollo's lore,
 Without the pains to study it.
 For thy sake I in love am grown
 With what thy fancy does pursue;
 But when I think upon my own,
 I hate it for that reason too,
 Because it needs must hinder me
 From seeing and from serving thee.
 O solitude, O how I solitude adore!