With a whip of lilies, Love
Swiftly me before him drove:
On we cours’d it through deep floods,
Hollow valleys, and rough woods,
Till a snake that lurking lay5
Chanc’d to sting me by the way.
Now my soul was nigh to death,
Ebbing, flowing, with my breath,
When Love, fanning with his wings,
Back my fleeting spirit brings:10
‘Learn,’ saith he, ’another day,
Love without constraint t’obey!’
II.
Vex no more thyself and me
With demure philosophy,
Hollow precepts, only fit
To amuse the busy wit.
Teach me brisk Lyæus’ rites;5
Teach me Venus’ blithe delights.
Jove[65:1] loves water: give me wine,
That my soul ere I resign
May this cure of sorrow have.
There’s no drinking in the grave!10
III. The Spring.
See, the Spring herself discloses,
And the Graces gather roses;
See how the becalmed seas
Now their swelling waves appease;
How the duck swims; how the crane5
Comes from ’s winter home again;
See how Titan’s cheerful ray
Chaseth the dark clouds away!
Now in their new robes of green
Are the ploughman’s labours seen;10
Now the lusty teeming earth
Springs, each hour, with a new birth;
Now the olive blooms; the vine
Now cloth with plump pendants shine,
And with leaves and blossoms now15
Freshly bourgeons every bough.