Sing, Muse-and O! may Townshend deign to view
What the Muse fings, to Townshend this is due!
Who, carrying with him all the world admires,
From all the world fluftriously retires:
And calmly wandering in his Rainham roves
By lake, or spring, by thicket, lawn, or groves :
Where verdant hills, or vales, where fountains stray,
Charm every thought of idle pomp away:
Unenvy'd views the splendid toils of state,
In private happy, as in public great.
Thus godlike Scipio, on whofe cares reclin'd
The burthen and repose of half mankind,
Left to the vain their pomp, and calmly fray'd,
The world forgot, beneath the laurel shade;
Nor longer would be great, but, void of strife,
Clos'd in foft peace his eve of glorious life.
Feed round, my goats; ye fheep, in safety graze; Ye winds, breathe gently while I tune my lays.
The joyous spring draws nigh! amhrofial showers Unbind the earth, the earth unbinds the flowers, The flowers blow fweet, the daffodils unfold The fpreading glories of their blooming gold.
As the gay hours advance, the bloffoms fhoot,
The knitting bloffoms harden into fruit,
And as the autumn by degrees enfues,
The mellowing fruits difplay their streaky hues.
When the winds whiftle, and the tempeft roars,
When foaming billows lash the founding shores,
The bloomy beauties of the paftures die,
And in gay heaps of fragrant ruin lie.
Severe the storms! when fhuddering winter binds
The earth! but winter yields to vernal winds.
O Love, thy rigour my whole life deforms,
More cold than winter, more fevere than storms!
Sweet is the fpring, and gay the fummer hours, When balmy odours breathe from painted flowers; But neither sweet the fpring, nor fummer gay, When the I love, my charmer, is away.
To favage rocks, through bleak inclement skies,
Deaf as those rocks, from me my fair-one flies :
O virgin, cease to fly! th' inclement air
May hurt thy charms !---but thou haft charms to fpare!
I love, and ever fhall my love remain,
The fairest, kindeft virgin of the plain;
With equal paffion her :oft bofom glows,
Feels the fweet pains, and fhares the heavenly woes.
With a feign'd paffion, the I love, beguiles,
And gayly falfe the dear diffembler fmiles;
But let her till thofe bleft deceits employ,
Still may the feign, and cheat me into joy!
On yonder bank the yielding nymph reclin'd,
Gods! how transported I, and she how kind!
There rife, ye flowers, and there your pride display,
There fhed your odours where the fair-one lay!
Once, as my fair-one in the rofy bower
In gentle flumbers pafs'd the noon-tide hour,
Soft I approach'd, and raptur'd with the blifs
At leisure gaz'd, then stole a filent kifs;
She wak'd; when confcious fmiles, but ill repreft,
Spoke no difdain !- -Was ever fwain fo bleft?
With fragrant apples from the bending bough
In fport my charmer gave her swain a blow :
The fair offender, of my wrath afraid,
Fled, till I feiz'd and kiss'd the blooming maid:
She fmil'd, and vow'd if thus her crimes I pay,
She would offend a thousand times a day!
O'er the steep mountain, and the pathlefs mead,
From my embrace the lovely fcorner fled;
But ftumbling in the flight, by chance she fell;
I faw---but what---her lover will not tell!
From me, my fair-one fled, diffembling play,
And in the dark conceal'd the wanton lay;
But laugh'd, and fhew'd by the directing found
She only hid, in fecret to be found.
Far hence to happier climes Belinda ftrays,
But in my breast her lovely image stays;
O! to these plains again, bright nymph, repair,
Or from my breast far hence thy image bear!
Come, Delia, come, till Delia bless these feats,
dark retreats!
Hide me, ye groves, within
In hollow groans, ye winds, around me blow!
Ye bubbling fountains, murmur to my woe!
Where'er Belinda roves, ye Zephyrs, play!
Where'er fhe treads, ye flowers, adorn the way
From fultry funs, ye groves, my charmer keep!
Ye bubbling fountains, murmur to her fleep!
If ftreams fmooth-wandering, Delia, yield delight, If the gay rofe, or lily, please thy fight;
Smooth streams here wander, here the roses glow, Here the proud lilies rife to fhade thy brow!
Aid me, ye Mufes, while I loud proclaim
What love infpires, and fing Belinda's name :
Waft it, ye breezes, to the hills around,
And sport, ye echoes, with the favourite found.
Thy name, my Delia, fhall improve my fong,
The pleafing labour of my ravish'd tongue :
Her name to heaven propitious Zephyrs bear,
And breathe it to her kindred angels there!
But fee! the night difplays her starry train,
Soft filver dews impearl the glittering plain;
An awful horror fills the gloomy woods,
And bluish mifts rife from the fmoaking floods;
* Hafte, Daphnis, hafte to fold thy woolly care,
The deepening fhades imbrown th' unwholesome air.
VARIATION.
* Hafte, Lycidas, to fold &c.
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