May-day
A PASTORAL .
IN THE MANNER OF CUNNINGHAM .
See! rob'd in new beauties, young May cheers the lawn!
Ye virgins! how charming her air,
Haste! cull her fresh flow'rets dew drooping at dawn,
And chaplets entwine for your hair!
Yes! weave the gay garland! each moment improve!
Youth's pleasures, like Spring, fleet away!
Life has its soft season — that season is Love .
— Ah! taste its fond joys while 'tis May.
But lately I winded yon mountain's green side; —
How blessed! for a fair one was by;
I marked, as she welcomed the Spring's opening pride,
The rapture that beamed in her eye:
Her fav'rite young lambkins ran bleating around,
(Their fleeces were whiter than snow!)
The cliffs crowned with oakwood, returned the soft sound;
The still lake gleamed placid below.
" How happy," she cried, " in some sheltered retreat,
With lambkins and flocks bleating nigh;
In my straw-covered cottage, though humble, yet neat,
I could live — and contented would die!
This oak-waving mountain would ward winter's blast;
Yon lake teach complaint to be still;
Health, mirth, peace, and temperance, crown the repast,
And freedom — bound light o'er the hill!"
A glance that escaped the dear maid at the time,
Half whispered a wish was untold; —
" And would my fair shepherdess deem it a crime
If E DWIN were guard to the fold?"
" I told my soft wishes," she sweetly replied,
(Ye virgins! her voice was divine!)
" I've rich ones rejected, and great ones denied,
But take me, fond shepherd! — I'm thine."
Her look was so artless! her accent so mild!
Her candour so sweetly expressed!
I gazed on her beauties as blushing she smiled,
And clasped the loved maid to my breast!
The primrose in clusters breathed fragrance around,
And witnessed the vows that were given;
The lark, that sat listening, soared swift from the ground,
And warbled the contract in — heaven!
Yon cottage, where woodbines so fondly entwine,
We've chose for our humble retreat,
Where T EATH'S gentle murmurs raise musings divine,
'Tis there my love's lambkins shall bleat!
There friendship shall lure modest worth to our door,
And shelter from care's wintry blast;
Content, decked in smiles, spread her pastoral store,
And Miranda prepare the repast!
Thus fixed, what imports it, ye great ones and vain,
Though splendour withholds her false gleam,
If pleased with our little, and strangers to pain,
Life glides placid by like yon stream?
While H EALTH , heavenly goddess! smiles buxom and gay,
Shall we murmur that wealth comes not nigh?
When thy charms, I NDEPENDENCE ! thus prompt the free lay,
And the Muse, lark like, soars to the sky!
IN THE MANNER OF CUNNINGHAM .
See! rob'd in new beauties, young May cheers the lawn!
Ye virgins! how charming her air,
Haste! cull her fresh flow'rets dew drooping at dawn,
And chaplets entwine for your hair!
Yes! weave the gay garland! each moment improve!
Youth's pleasures, like Spring, fleet away!
Life has its soft season — that season is Love .
— Ah! taste its fond joys while 'tis May.
But lately I winded yon mountain's green side; —
How blessed! for a fair one was by;
I marked, as she welcomed the Spring's opening pride,
The rapture that beamed in her eye:
Her fav'rite young lambkins ran bleating around,
(Their fleeces were whiter than snow!)
The cliffs crowned with oakwood, returned the soft sound;
The still lake gleamed placid below.
" How happy," she cried, " in some sheltered retreat,
With lambkins and flocks bleating nigh;
In my straw-covered cottage, though humble, yet neat,
I could live — and contented would die!
This oak-waving mountain would ward winter's blast;
Yon lake teach complaint to be still;
Health, mirth, peace, and temperance, crown the repast,
And freedom — bound light o'er the hill!"
A glance that escaped the dear maid at the time,
Half whispered a wish was untold; —
" And would my fair shepherdess deem it a crime
If E DWIN were guard to the fold?"
" I told my soft wishes," she sweetly replied,
(Ye virgins! her voice was divine!)
" I've rich ones rejected, and great ones denied,
But take me, fond shepherd! — I'm thine."
Her look was so artless! her accent so mild!
Her candour so sweetly expressed!
I gazed on her beauties as blushing she smiled,
And clasped the loved maid to my breast!
The primrose in clusters breathed fragrance around,
And witnessed the vows that were given;
The lark, that sat listening, soared swift from the ground,
And warbled the contract in — heaven!
Yon cottage, where woodbines so fondly entwine,
We've chose for our humble retreat,
Where T EATH'S gentle murmurs raise musings divine,
'Tis there my love's lambkins shall bleat!
There friendship shall lure modest worth to our door,
And shelter from care's wintry blast;
Content, decked in smiles, spread her pastoral store,
And Miranda prepare the repast!
Thus fixed, what imports it, ye great ones and vain,
Though splendour withholds her false gleam,
If pleased with our little, and strangers to pain,
Life glides placid by like yon stream?
While H EALTH , heavenly goddess! smiles buxom and gay,
Shall we murmur that wealth comes not nigh?
When thy charms, I NDEPENDENCE ! thus prompt the free lay,
And the Muse, lark like, soars to the sky!
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