DAPHNIS. O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize, And make my tongue victorious as her eyes: 50 No lambs or sheep for victims I'll impart ; Thy victim, Love, shall be the shepherd's heart. STREPHON. Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain; Then, hid in shades, eludes her eager swain; But feigns a laugh to see me search around, And by that laugh the willing fair is found. DAPHNIS. The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green; She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen: While a kind glance at her pursuer flies, How much at variance are her feet and eyes! 60 STREPHON. O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow, And trees weep amber on the banks of Po; Bright Thames's shores the brightest beauties yield; Feed here my lambs; I'll seek no distant field. DAPHNIS. Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves; If Windsor shades delight the matchless maid, STREPHON. All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers, Hush'd are the birds, and closed the drooping flowers: If Delia smile, the flowers begin to spring, DAPHNIS. 70 All nature laughs, the groves are fresh and fair, The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air: DAPHNIS. Hear how the birds, on every blooming spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day! Why sit we mute, when early linnets sing, When warbling Philomel salutes the spring? Why sit we sad, when Phosphor shines so clear, And lavish Nature paints the purple year? STREPHON. Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain, While yon slow oxen turn the furrow'd plain. 30 Here the bright crocus and blue violet glow; Here western winds on breathing roses blow. I'll stake yon lamb that near the fountain plays, And from the brink his dancing shade surveys. DAPHNIS. And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines, And what is that, which binds the radiant sky, DAMON. Then sing by turns, by turns the Muses sing: Now hawthorns blossom, now the daisies spring; Now leaves the trees, and flowers adorn the ground: Begin; the vales shall every note rebound. STREPHON. Inspire me, Phoebus, in my Delia's praise, With Waller's strains, or Granville's moving lays! A milk-white bull shall at your altars stand, That threats a fight, and spurns the rising sand. * George Granville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne. DAPHNIS. O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize, And make my tongue victorious as her eyes: 50 No lambs or sheep for victims I'll impart ; Thy victim, Love, shall be the shepherd's heart. STREPHON. Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain; Then, hid in shades, eludes her eager swain; But feigns a laugh to see me search around, And by that laugh the willing fair is found. DAPHNIS. The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green; She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen: While a kind glance at her pursuer flies, How much at variance are her feet and eyes! 60 STREPHON. O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow, And trees weep amber on the banks of Po; Bright Thames's shores the brightest beauties yield; Feed here my lambs; I'll seek no distant field. DAPHNIS. Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves; If Windsor shades delight the matchless maid, STREPHON. All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers, Hush'd are the birds, and closed the drooping flowers: If Delia smile, the flowers begin to spring, DAPHNIS. 70 All nature laughs, the groves are fresh and fair, The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air: If Sylvia smile, new glories gild the shore, And vanquish'd nature seems to charm no more. STREPHON. In spring the fields, in autumn hills I love, At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove, But Delia always; absent from her sight, Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight. 80 DAPHNIS. Sylvia's like autumn ripe, yet mild as May; More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day: Ev'n spring displeases, when she shines not here; But bless'd with her, 'tis spring throughout the year. STREPHON. Say, Daphnis, say, in what glad soil appears, A wondrous tree that sacred monarchs bears; Tell me but this, and I'll disclaim the prize, And give the conquest to thy Sylvia's eyes. DAPHNIS. Nay, tell me first, in what more happy fields The thistle springs, to which the lily yields ;+ 90 And then a nobler prize I will resign; For Sylvia, charming Sylvia, shall be thine. DAMON. Cease to contend; for, Daphnis, I decree The bowl to Strephon, and the lamb to thee. Bless'd swains, whose nymphs in every grace excel; Bless'd nymphs, whose swains those graces sing so well! Now rise, and haste to yonder woodbine bowers, A soft retreat from sudden vernal showers : * "An allusion to the royal oak, in which Charles II. had been hid from the pursuit after the battle of Worcester." Alluding to an alteration in the royal shield, made at the union of England and Scotland, A.D. 1707, when the thistle took the place of the fleur-de-lys. The turf with rural dainties shall be crown'd, 99 While opening blooms diffuse their sweets around. For, see the gathering flocks to shelter tend, And from the Pleiads fruitful showers descend. SUMMER: • THE SECOND PASTORAL, OR, TO DR. GARTH.* A SHEPHERD's boy (he seeks no better name) Accept, O Garth! the Muse's early lays, 10 'Ye shady beeches, and ye cooling streams, Defence from Phoebus', not from Cupid's beams, To you I mourn; nor to the deaf I sing; The woods shall answer, and their echo ring. The hills and rocks attend my doleful lay; Why art thou prouder and more hard than they? * A physician and poet. On the accession of George I. he was knighted, and appointed physician in ordinary to the king, and physician-general to the army. His poem "The Dispensary," gained considerable reputation. |