TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.[1]
First in these fields I try the sylvan strains,[2]
Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains:[3]
Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring,[4]
While on thy banks Sicilian[5] muses sing;
Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play,[6]5
And Albion's cliffs resound the rural lay.[7]
You, that too wise for pride, too good for pow'r,[8]
Enjoy the glory to be great no more,
And carrying with you all the world can boast,[9]
To all the world illustriously are lost!10
O let my muse her slender reed inspire,
Till in your native shades[10] you tune the lyre:
So when the nightingale to rest removes,
The thrush may chant to the forsaken groves,[11]
But, charmed to silence, listens while she sings,15
And all th' aërial audience clap their wings.[12]
Soon as the flocks shook off the nightly dews,[13]
Two swains, whom love kept wakeful, and the muse,
Poured o'er the whit'ning[14] vale their fleecy care,
Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair:[15]20
The dawn now blushing on the mountain's side,
Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus replied.[16]
DAPHNIS.
Hear how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray,[17]
With joyous music wake the dawning day![18]
Why sit we mute, when early linnets sing,25
When warbling Philomel salutes the spring?[19]
Why sit we sad, when Phosphor[20] shines so clear,
And lavish nature paints the purple[21] year?[22]
STREPHON.
Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain,
While yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain.30
Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow,[23]
Here western winds on breathing[24] roses blow.[25]
I'll stake yon lamb that near the fountain plays,
And from the brink his dancing shade surveys.[26]
DAPHNIS.
And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,[27]35
And swelling clusters bend the curling vines:[28]
Four figures rising from the work appear,[29]
The various seasons of the rolling year;[30]
And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,
Where twelve fair signs in beauteous order lie?[31]40
DAMON.
Then sing by turns, by turns the muses sing;[32]
Now hawthorns blossom, now the daisies spring,
Now leaves the trees, and flow'rs adorn the ground;
Begin, the vales shall ev'ry note rebound.[33]