Page images
PDF
EPUB

Haste thee Nymph, and bring with thee

Jeft and youthful Jollity,

Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,

Nods and Becks, and wreathed Smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,

25

And love to live in dimple fleek;

30

Sport that wrinkled Care derides,

And Laughter holding both his fides.
Come, and trip it as you go

On the light fantastic-toe.

And in thy right hand lead with thee,
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;
And if I give thee honor due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew

To live with her and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free;
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And finging startle the dull night,
From his watch-tow'r in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rife;
Then to come in fpight of forrow,

35

40

45

And at my window bid good morrow,

Through the fweet-briar, or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine:

While the cock with lively din

Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the ftack, or the barn-door,

50

Stoutly ftruts his dames before:

Oft

Oft lift'ning how the hounds and horn
Chearly rouse the slumb'ring morn,
From the fide of some hoar hill,

Through the high wood echoing fhrill:
Some time walking not unseen

55

By hedge-row elms, on hillocs green,
Right against the eastern gate,

Where the great fun begins his state,
Rob'd in flames, and amber light,

60

The clouds in thousand liveries dight,
While the plow-man near at hand

Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,

And the milk-maid fingeth blithe,
And the mower whets his fithe,

65

[blocks in formation]

Mountains on whose barren breast
The lab'ring clouds do often reft,
Meadows trim with daisies pied,

75

Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.
Towers and battlements it fees

Bofom'd high in tufted trees,

Where perhaps fome beauty lies,

The Cynosure of neighb'ring eyes.

80

Hard

Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes,

From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrfis met,
Are at their favory dinner fet
Of herbs, and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses;
And then in hafte her bow'r fhe leaves,
With Theftylis to bind the sheaves;
Or if the earlier feafon lead

To the tann'd haycock in the mead.
Sometimes with fecure delight
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocond rebecs found

To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequer'd fhade;

And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holy-day,

85

90

95

Till the live-long day-light fail;

Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

100

With ftories told of many a feat,

How faery Mab the junkets eat,

She was pincht, and pull'd she said,
And he by friars lanthorn led

Tells how the drudging Goblin swet,

To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,

His fhadowy flale hath thresh'd the corn,

105

That

That ten day-lab'rers could not end;
Then lies him down the lubbar fiend,
And flretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Baiks at the fire his hairy strength,
And crop-full out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.

Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whifp'ring winds foon lull'd asleep.
Towred cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,
With store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize

110

115

120

Of wit, or arms, while both contend

To win her grace, whom all commend.
There let Hymen oft appear

125

In faffron robe, with taper clear,
And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
With mask, and antique pageantry,
Such fights as youthful poets dream
On fummer eves by haunted stream.
Then to the well-trod ftage anon,
If Johnson's learned fock be on,

Or sweetest Shakespear, fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
And ever against eating cares,

Lap me in soft Lydian airs,

130

135

Mar

Married to immortal verse,
Such as the meeting Soul may pierce
In notes, with many a winding bout,
Of linked sweetness long drawn out,
With wanton heed, and giddy cunning,
The melting voice through mazes running,
Untwisting all the chains that ty

140

[blocks in formation]

150

His half regain'd Eurydice.

These delights, if thou canst give,

Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

IL

XIV.

PENSEROS 0.

ENCE vain deluding joys,

HEA

The brood of folly without father bred,

How little you bested,

Or fill'd the fixed mind with all your toys? Dwell in fome idle brain,

And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the fun-beams, Or likeft hovering dreams

5

The

« PreviousContinue »