And when her bright form shall appear, Each bird shall harmoniously join In a concert so soft and so clear, As she may not be fond to resign. I have found out a gift for my fair; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed: But let me that plunder forbear, She will say 'twas a barbarous deed : I have heard her with sweetness unfold And she call'd it the sister of love. Let her speak, and whatever she say, Can a bosom so gentle remain` Unmoved when her CORYDON sighs? Will a nymph that is fond of the plain These plains and this valley despise ? Dear Dear regions of silence and shade! Soft scenes of contentment and ease! But where does my PHYLLIDA stray? And where are her grots and her bowers? And the face of the valleys as fine; JII. SOLICITUDE. WHY will you my passion reprove? O you that have been of her train, I could I could lay down my life for the swain For when PARIDEL tries in the dance Might she ruin the peace of my mind! And his crook is bestudded around ; And his pipe-oh may PHYLLIS beware Of a magic there is in the sound! 'Tis his with mock passion to glow; To the grove or the garden he strays, And pillages every sweet; Then 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 a morn, to compare? What is eglantine, after a shower ? "Then the lily no longer is white; Then the rose is deprived 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 ear. Let his crook be with hyacinths bound, Is a stranger to PARIDEL's tongue: 1 IV. DISAPPOINTMENT. YE shepherds, give ear to my lay, She was fair, and my passion begun ; Perhaps I was void of all thought; That a nymph so complete would be sought And the lip of the nymph we admire She is faithless, and I am undone; What it cannot instruct you to cure. How fair and how fickle they be. Alas! |