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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2020
‘Sigh Lady Sigh’
The poem is written in pencil, in a hand similar in some respects to that of Jane Austen, across two pages of Ann Murry, Mentoria: or, The Young Lady's Instructor (1778, second edn 1780), including the title page. The lines seem to be original, but authorship is impossible to verify. The book was owned by Jane Austen in the 1790s and given by her to Anna Lefroy in 1801. It is now owned by the Jane Austen Memorial Trust at Chawton Cottage. See Introduction, p. cxxvii.
Sigh Lady sigh, hide not the tear thats stealing
Down thy young face now so pale & cheerless
Let not thy heart be blighted by the feeling
That presses on thy soul, of utter loneliness.
In sighs supprest & grief that's [ever?] weeping
Beats slow & mournfully [a mourning?] heart
A heart oer which decay & death are creeping
In which no sunshine can a gleam impart.
Thou art not desolate, tho’ left forsaken
By one in whom thy very soul was bound
Let Natures voice thy dreary heart awaken
Oh listen to the melodies around.
For Summer her pure golden tress is flinging
On woods & glades & silent gliding streams
With joy the very air around is ringing
Oh rouse thee from those mournful mournful dreams.
Go forth let not that voice in vain be calling
Join thy hearts voice to that which fills the air
For he who een a sparrow saves from falling
Makes thee an object of peculiar care.
‘On the Universities’
The manuscript is held in the HenryW. and Albert A. Berg Collection at theNewYork Public Library and is in JA's hand.However, shemust simply have copied out the poem, which appears in many collected volumes of verse and epigrams including in the ‘Epigrams’ section of the highly popular Elegant Extracts: or Useful and Entertaining Pieces of Poetry, selected for the Improvement of Youth (London: Charles Dilly, c.1789[?] and subsequent editions). See Introduction, pp. cxxvi–cxxvii.
No wonder that Oxford and Cambridge profound
In Learning and Science so greatly abound
Since some carry thither a little each day
and we meet with so few who bring any away.
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