That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. The water nymphs that in the bottom played, And through the porch and inlet of each sense Which she with precious vialed liquors heals; Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream, Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. And, as the old swain said, she can unlock The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, If she be right invoked in warbled song; For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift To aid a virgin, such as was herself, In hard-besetting need: this will I try, And add the power of some adjuring verse. Song. Sabrina fair, Listen where thou art sitting Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; Goddess of the silver lake, In name of great Oceanus ; By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, And Tethys' grave majestic pace, By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, By scaly Triton's winding shell, By Leucothea's lovely hands, And her son that rules the strands, By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, And the songs of sirens sweet, By dead Parthenope's 45 dear tomb, Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks, By all the nymphs that nightly dance Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head From thy coral-paven bed, And bridle in thy headlong wave, Till thou our summons answered have. Listen, and save. [SABRINA rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings.] By the rushy-fringed bank, Where grows the willow and the osier dank, My sliding chariot stays, Thick set with agate, and the azure sheen Of turkis blue, and emerald green, That in the channel strays; Thus I set my printless feet O'er the cowslip's velvet head, That bends not as I tread; Gentle swain, at thy request I am here. |