But this "season of delight" as she calls it, exists in marked contrast to the melancholy residing in the poet Smith's own breast. Despite the fact that an unnamed (presumably romantic, although this is not stated) sorrow rankles in her breast, the rebirth of the world, she says, kindles a kind of false hope in the possibilities of rebirth of the poet's soul and hope. Rather than seeing rebirth in nature as a good thing, she wishes the "balmy air" could cure her despair. Thus, both poets create a dichotomy between outer and inner, between a harmonious and lovely outsider's...

The sight of the river heals the poet, the spring temporarily revitalizes Smith, but neither believes that the sight of nature unchanged or changed can truly revivify their desolate mental state in a permanent fashion.
Works Cited

Bowles, W.L. "Sonnet VIII. To the River Itchin, near Winton." 1789. 11 Dec 2004. http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/bowles1789.html#sonnet8

Smith, Charlotte. "To Spring." 11 Dec 2004. http://libr.unl.edu:2000/cgi-bin/s2h.pl? Elegiacvol1.sgm