Classic Poem

Led by the jocund train of vernal hours
And vernal airs, uprose the gentle May;
Blushing she rose, and blushing rose the flowers
That sprung spontaneous in her genial ray.

Her locks with Heaven's ambrosial dews were bright,
And amorous zephyrs flutter'd on her breast:
With every shifting gleam of morning light
The colours shifted of her rainbow vest.

Imperial ensigns grac'd her smiling form,
A golden key, and golden wand she bore;
This charms to peace each sullen eastern Storm,
And that unlocks the Summer's copious store.

Onward in conscious majesty she came,
The grateful honours of mankind to taste;
To gather fairest wreaths of future fame,
And blend fresh triumphs with her glories past.

Vain hope! no more in choral bands unite
Her virgin votaries, and at early dawn,
Sacred to May and Love's mysterious rite,
Brush the light dew-drops from the spangled lawn.

To her no more Augusta's wealthy pride
Pours the full tribute from Potosi's mine;
Nor fresh-blown garlands village maids provide,
A purer offering at her rustic shrine.

No more the Maypole's verdant height around
To valour's games the' ambitious youth advance;
No merry bells and tabors' sprightlier sound
Wake the loud carol, and the sportive dance.

Sudden in pensive sadness droop'd her head,
Faint on her cheeks the blushing crimson dy'd —
" O! chaste victorious triumphs, whither fled?
My maiden honours, whither gone?" she cried.

" Ah! once to fame and bright dominion born,
The earth and smiling ocean saw me rise,
With time coival and the star of morn,
The first, the fairest daughter of the skies.

" Then, when at Heaven's prolific mandate sprung
The radiant beam of new-created day,
Celestial harps, to airs of triumph strung,
Hail'd the glad dawn, and angels call'd me May.

" Space in her empty regions heard the sound,
And hills, and dales, and rocks, and vallies rung;
The Sun exulted in his glorious round,
And shouting Planets in their courses sung.

" For ever then I led the constant year;
Saw Youth, and Joy, and Love's enchanting wiles;
Saw the mild Graces in my train appear,
And infant Beauty brighten in my smiles.

" No Winter frown'd. In sweet embrace allied,
Three sister Seasons danc'd the' eternal green;
And Spring's retiring softness gently vied
With Autumn's blush, and Summer's lofty mien.

" Too soon, when man profan'd the blessings given,
And Vengeance arm'd to blot a guilty age,
With bright Astrea to my native Heaven
I fled, and flying saw the Deluge rage:

" Saw bursting clouds eclipse the noontide beams,
While sounding billows from the mountains roll'd,
With bitter waves polluting all my streams,
My nectar'd streams, that flow'd on sands of gold.

" Then vanish'd many a sea-girt isle and grove,
Their forests floating on the watry plain:
Then, fam'd for arts and laws deriv'd from Jove,
My Atalantis sunk beneath the main.

" No longer bloom'd primevaLeden's bow'rs,
Nor guardian dragons watch'd the' Hesperian steep:
With all their fountains, fragrant fruits, and flow'rs,
Torn from the continent to glut the deep.

" No more to dwell in silvan scenes I deign'd,
Yet oft descending to the languid earth,
With quickening powers the fainting mass sustain'd,
And wak'd her slumbering atoms into birth.

" And every echo caught my raptur'd name,
And every virgin breath'd her amorous vows,
And precious wreaths of rich immortal fame,
Shower'd by the Muses, crown'd my lofty brows.

" But chief in Europe, and in Europe's pride,
My Albion's favour'd realms, I rose ador'd;
And pour'd my wealth, to other climes denied,
From Amalthea's horn with plenty stor'd.

" Ah me! for now a younger Rival claims
My ravish'd honours, and to her belong
My choral dances and victorious games,
To her my garlands and triumphal song.

" O say what yet untasted bounties flow,
What purer joys await her gentler reign?
Do lilies fairer, violets sweeter blow?
And warbles Philomel a softer strain?

" Do morning suns in ruddier glory rise?
Does evening fan her with serener gales?
Do clouds drop fatness from the wealthier skies,
Or wantons plenty in her happier vales?

" Ah! no: the blunted beams of dawning light
Skirt the pale orient with uncertain day;
And Cynthia, riding on the car of night,
Through clouds embattled faintly wins her way.

" Pale, immature, the blighted verdure springs,
Nor mounting juices feed the swelling flow'r;
Mute all the groves, nor Philomela sings
When Silence listens at the midnight hour.

" Nor wonder, man, that Nature's bashful face,
And opening charms, her rude embraces fear:
Is she not sprung of April's wayward race,
The sickly daughter of the' unripen'd year?

" With showers and sunshine in her fickle eyes,
With hollow smiles proclaiming treacherous peace;
With blushes, harbouring in their thin disguise,
The blast that riots on the Spring's increase.

" Is this the fair invested with my spoil
By Europe's laws, and Senates' stern command?
Ungenerous Europe, let me fly thy soil,
And waft my treasures to a grateful land:

" Again revive on Asia's drooping shore,
My Daphne's groves, or Lycia's ancient plain;
Again to Afric's sultry sands restore
Embowering shades, and Lybian Ammon's fane:

" Or haste to northern Zembla's savage coast,
There hush to silence elemental strife;
Brood o'er the region of eternal frost,
And swell her barren womb with heat and life:

" Then Britain" — Here she ceas'd. Indignant grief,
And parting pangs, her faultering tongue suppress'd:
Veil'd in an amber cloud she sought relief,
And tears and silent anguish told the rest.