With her modesty pleases the grave; She is every way pleasing to me.
O you, that have been of her train, Come and join in my amorous lays! I could lay down my life for the swain, That will sing but a song in her praise. When he sings, may the nymphs of the town Come trooping, and listen the while;
Nay, on him may not Phyllida frown; -But I cannot allow her to smile.
For when Paridel tries in the dance Any favour with Phyllis to find, O how, with one trivial glance,
Might she ruin the peace of my mind!
In ringlets he dresses his hair,
And his crook is bestudded around; And his pipe-oh, my Phillis! beware Of a magic there is in the sound.
'Tis his with mock passion to glow; 'Tis his in smooth tales to unfold, "How her face is as bright as the snow, And her bosom, be sure, is as cold; How the nightingales labour the strain, With the notes of his charmer to vie; How they vary their accents in vain, Repine at her triumphs, and die."
To the grove or the garden he strays, And pillages every sweet; Then, suiting the wreath to his lays,
He throws it at Phyllis's feet.
"O Phyllis," he whispers, "more fair,
More sweet than the jessamine's flower! What are pinks in the morn to compare? What is eglantine after a shower?
"Then the lily no longer is white;
Then the rose is depriv'd of its bloom;
Then the violets die with despite,
And the woodbines give up their perfume."
Thus glide the soft numbers along,
And he fancies no shepherd his peer:
Yet I never should envy the song,
Were not Phyllis to lend it an eár.
Let his crook be with hyacinths bound, So Phyllis the trophy despise; Let his forehead with laurels be crown'd, So they shine not in Phyllis's eyes. The language that flows from the heart, Is a stranger to Paridel's tongue; -Yet may she beware of his art,
Or sure I must envy the song.
IV. DISAPPOINTMENT.
YE Shepherds, give ear to my lay, And take no more heed of my sheep: They have nothing to do but to stray; I have nothing to do but to weep, Yet do not my folly reprove;
She was fair-and my passion begun; She smil'd-and I could not but love; She is faithless-and I am undone.
Perhaps I was void of all thought; Perhaps it was plain to foresee, That a nymph so complete would be sought By a swain more engaging than me. Ah! love ev'ry hope can inspire; It banishes wisdom the while; And the lip of the nymph we admire Seems for ever adorn'd with a smile.
She is faithless, and I am undone; Ye that witness the woes I endure, Let reason instruct you to shun
What it cannot instruct you to cure. Beware how you loiter in vain Amid nymphs of a higher degree.
It is not for me to explain
How fair, and how fickle they be.
Alas! from the day that we met, What hope of an end to my woes? When I cannot endure to forget
The glatice that undid my repose. Yet time may diminish the pain:
The flow'r, and the shrub, and the tree, Which I rear'd for her pleasure in vain, In time may have comfort for me.
The sweets of a dew-sprinkled rose, The sound of a murmuring stream, The peace which from solitude flows,
Henceforth shall be Corydon's theme. High transports are shown to the sight, But we are not to find them our own; Fate never bestow'd such delight
As I with my Phyllis had known.
O ye woods, spread your branches apace! To your deepest recesses I fly;
I would hide with the beasts of the chace; I would vanish from every eye. Yet my reed shall resound through the grove
With the same sad complaint it begun; How she smil'd, and I could not but love! Was faithless, and I am undone !
PITY the sorrows of a poor old man!
Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span; Oh! give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.
These tatter'd clothes my poverty bespeak, These hoary locks proclaim my lengthen'd years; And many a furrow in my grief-worn cheek, Has been the channel to a stream of tears.
Yon house, erected on the rising ground, With tempting aspect drew me from my road; For Plenty there a residence has found, And Grandeur a magnificent abode :
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