Catch the white-handed nymphs in shady places,

To woo sweet kisses from averted faces, Play with their fingers, touch their shoulders white

Into a pretty shrinking with a bite
As hard as lips can make it: till agreed,
A lovely tale of human life we'll read. 110
And one will teach a tame dove how it best
May fan the cool air gently o'er my rest;
Another, bending o’er her nimble tread,
Will set a green robe floating round her
head,

And still will dance with ever-varied ease,
Smiling upon the flowers and the trees:
Another will entice me on, and on
Through almond blossoms and rich cinna-

Between two hills. All hail, delightful hopes!

As she was wont, th' imagination
Into most lovely labyrinths will be gone,
And they shall be accounted poet kings
Who simply tell the most heart-easing
things.

O may these joys be ripe before I die.

270

Will not some say that I presumptuously Have spoken? that from hastening disgrace 'T were better far to hide my foolish face? That whining boyhood should with reverence bow

Ere the dread thunderbolt could reach?
How!

If I do hide myself, it sure shall be
In the very fane, the light of Poesy:
If I do fall, at least I will be laid
Beneath the silence of a poplar shade;
And over me the grass shall be smooth
shaven ;

And there shall be a kind memorial graven.

280

But off, Despondence! miserable bane! They should not know thee, who athirst to gain

A noble end, are thirsty every hour.
What though I am not wealthy in the dower
Of spanning wisdom; though I do not know
The shiftings of the mighty winds that
blow

Ah! rather let me like a madman run
Over some precipice; let the hot sun
Melt my Dædalian wings, and drive me
down

Convuls'd and headlong! Stay! an inward frown

Of conscience bids me be more calm awhile. An ocean dim, sprinkled with many an isle,

Spreads awfully before me. How much toil!

How many days! what desperate turmoil!
Ere I can have explored its widenesses.
Ah, what a task! upon my bended
knees,

I could unsay those-no, impossible!
Impossible!

310

For sweet relief I'll dwell On humbler thoughts, and let this strange assay

Begun in gentleness die so away.

E'en now all tumult from my bosom fades :
I turn full-hearted to the friendly aids
That smooth the path of honour; brother-

hood,

Are fluttering round the room like doves in pairs ;

Many delights of that glad day recalling, When first my senses caught their tender falling.

330

Of vine leaves. Then there rose to view a fane

Of liny marble, and thereto a train Of nymphs approaching fairly o'er the sward:

Things such as these are ever harbingers To trains of peaceful images: the stirs 340 Of a swan's neck unseen among the rushes: A linnet starting all about the bushes: A butterfly, with golden wings broad parted,

Nestling a rose, convuls'd as though it smarted

With over pleasure- many, many more,
Might I indulge at large in all my store
Of luxuries: yet I must not forget
Sleep, quiet with his poppy coronet :
For what there may be worthy in these
rhymes

I partly owe to him: and thus, the

toward

The dazzling sunrise: two sisters sweet
Bending their graceful figures till they meet
Over the trippings of a little child :
And some are hearing, eagerly, the wild 370
Thrilling liquidity of dewy piping.
See, in another picture, nymphs are wiping
Cherishingly Diana's timorous limbs ;-
A fold of lawny mantle dabbling swims
At the bath's edge, and keeps a gentle
motion

With the subsiding crystal: as when ocean Heaves calmly its broad swelling smoothiness o'er

Its rocky marge, and balances once more The patient weeds; that now unshent by foam

Feel all about their undulating home.

380

Sappho's meek head was there half smiling down

At nothing; just as though the earnest frown

Of over-thinking had that moment gone From off her brow, and left her all alone.