What but an empty pageant of sweet noise?

’Tis past: and all that it has left behind

Is but an echo dwelling in the ear

Of the toy-taken fancy, and beside,

A void and countless hour in life’s brief day.

But ill accords my verse with the delights

Of this gay month:—and see the Villagers

Assembling jocund in their best attire

To grace this genial morn. Now I descend

To join the worldly crowd; perchance to talk,