A LOVE SONG

(In the modern taste, 1733)

FLUTTERING spread thy purple pinions,

Gentle Cupid, o'er my heart;

I, a slave in thy dominions;

Nature must give way to art.

Mild Arcadians, ever blooming,

Nightly nodding o'er your flocks,

See my weary days consuming

All beneath yon flowery rocks.

Thus the Cyprian goddess weeping

Mourn'd Adonis, darling youth;

Him the boar, in silence creeping,

Gored with unrelenting tooth.

Cynthia, tune harmonious numbers,

Fair Discretion, string the lyre;

Soothe my ever-waking slumbers;

Bright Apollo, lend thy choir.

Gloomy Pluto, king of terrors,

Arm'd in adamantine chains,

Lead me to the crystal mirrors

Watering soft Elysian plains.

Mourning cypress, verdant willow,

Gilding my Aurelia's brows,

Morpheus hovering o'er my pillow,

Hear me pay my dying vows.

Melancholy smooth Meander,

Swiftly purling in a round,

On thy margin lovers wander,

With thy flowery chaplets crowned.

Thus when Philomela drooping

Softly seeks her silent mate,

See the bird of Juno stooping;

Melody resigns to fate.

Dean Swift.