University of Virginia Library

Venus, bright beam of night, and watch of day,
Had chas'd the lingering stars of heaven away,
Driven to the deep pale Cynthia from the sky,
And lost herself the beauty of her eye;
With Mercury she sought the secret shade,
And Mars withdrew, for all his burning blade;
Nor gloomy Saturn, rolling in his sphere,
Durst longer in the firmament appear,
But vanish'd far from ken of mortals, far
Beyond great Jupiter's imperial star.
The screech-owl, startled at the dawning light,
Wing'd to her bower her solitary flight:
For fresh Aurora, Tithon's splendid spouse,
Rose from her saffron bed, and left her ivory house;
Her violet robe was stain'd with crimson hue,
The cape vermilion, and the border blue;
Her hands the windows of her hall unbarr'd,
Spread all with roses, and perfum'd with nard:
The crystal gates of heaven expanded wide
Pour'd streams of splendor in an ample tide:
The beaming orient, beauteous to behold,
Shed purple rays, and azure mix'd with gold,
Dispersing with all-penetrating light
The solid gloom of cloud-envelop'd night.
The Sun's gay coursers, in their harness red,
Above the billowy ocean's boundless bed
Rais'd high their heads, impetuous in career,
To give the light, and glad our hemisphere.
So fast they scour'd, that from their nostrils came
A cloud of smoke, and streams of living flame,
Fir'd by the whirling whip their round to run,
And roll the golden chariot of the sun.
While shortly with the blazing torch of day,
Forth from his royal hall in fresh array,
Sprung Phœbus, by his flaming mantle known,
His glorious visage, and his golden crown;
His glossy locks were as the topaz bright,
His radiance beam'd intolerable light;
His eye-balls sparkled with celestial sheen,
To purge the air, and gild the tender green,
Diffusing from the brightness of his brow,
Etherial mildness on the world below.
Before the king of day thin vapours rose,
Like clouds of incense, and as sweet as those,
(The dewy tribute which the meads exhale)
Curling they rose, and hover'd o'er the vale.
The golden splendor of his glorious beams
Glanc'd on the floods, and glitter'd in the streams,
And all the ocean shone serenely bright,
With the first glimpse of his supernal sight.
How calm! how still! how pleasing to behold
The sea's broad bosom where no billows roll'd!
The season soft, the firmament serene,
Th' illumin'd landschape, and the watry scene!
Where sportive fish display'd their silver pride,
Quick glancing on the surface of the tide,
By russet fins impell'd from shore to shore,
Their tail the rudder, and their fin the oar.
New lustre gilded all the rising lands,
The stony hillocks, and the beryl strands;
While the reflection of the glowing beams
Play'd on the banks in variegated gleams.
Where-e'er Apollo's radiant coursers went,
Sprung flowers unnumber'd of delicious scent;
Earth's flourish'd carpet various hues display'd,
And wood and forest wore a fuller shade,
Whose beauteous branches, chequer'd on the green,
Imbrown'd the rigid rocks that rose between:
Tow'rs, battlements, and castles huge and high,
Turrets, and spires that mingle with the sky,
And every dome, and pinnacle, and fane,
By their own shade stood figur'd on the plain.
The glebe, now fearless of the North's keen air,
To buxom Zephyr spread her bosom bare,
With genial warmth her fertile lap to cheer,
And fill her with the plenty of the year.
Fresh springing corn enlivened all the scene,
And cloath'd the country with a robe of green:
And plants so numerous open'd to the view,
The fields rejoicing wonder'd how they grew.
With joy the Goddess of the golden grain,
And proud Priapus ey'd the pregnant plain;
Where fruitful nature wak'd her genial power,
And rear'd, and foster'd every herb and flower:
The fair creation swell'd upon the eye;
Earth was their bed, their canopy the sky.
A varied verdure rob'd the vales around,
And spread luxuriant o'er the furrow'd ground:
And flowery weeds, that grew profuse between
The barley-lands, diversified the scene.
The silver springs, that thro' the meadows flow'd
In many a rill, fertility bestow'd;
And where the humid night's restoring dew
Dropt on the ground the bladed herbage grew,
As fast as cattle the long summer's day
Had cropt the grassy sustenance away.
A bloom diffusive o'er the gardens run,
Confiding in the safeguard of the sun:
Wreath'd ivy mantled round the lofty tower;
And hawthorn-hedges whiten'd into flower.
The fresh-form'd grapes in little clusters hung;
Close to their props the curling tendrils clung.
The buds, that swell'd in gems on every tree,
Burst into foliage, nature's tapestry.

Lo! by soft zephyrs wak'd, and gentle showers,
On bending stalks smile voluntary flowers,
Trick'd off in vast variety of hue,
Some red, pale, purple, yellow, brown or blue;
Some brightly ting'd in heaven's etherial stain,
And some cerulean, like the watry main,
Some crimson-colour'd fairly fleckt with white,
Some gold that gayly glitter'd in the light.
The daisy did its coronet unveil,
And every flower unfolded in the dale;
Rank sprung salubrious herbs, and every weed,
And clover bloom'd luxuriant in the mead:
The flow'r-de-luce abroad its beauty spread,
And columbine advanc'd his purple head:
From dandelion flew the seeded down,
And strawb'ry beds bore wild weeds, not their own.
Carnations glow'd in gayly-mingled hue;
Pale was the primrose, and the violet blue.
Its velvet lips the bashful rose begun
To shew, and catch the kisses of the sun;
Some fuller blown their crimson honours shed;
Sweet smelt the golden chives that grac'd their head.
Queen of the field, in milk white mantle drest,
The lovely lilly wav'd her curling crest.
From every flower ambrosial sweets distill'd,
Ambrosial sweets the ambient ether fill'd.
Dew-drops like diamonds hung on every tree,
And sprinkled silvery lustre o'er the lea,
And all the verdurous herbage of the ground
Was deck'd with pearls which cast a splendor round.
The flowers, the buds, and every plant that grew,
Sipt the fresh fragrance of the morning dew:
In every plant the liquid nectar flow'd,
In every bud, and every flower that blow'd;
Here rov'd the busy bees without controul,
Robb'd the sweet bloom, and suck'd its balmy soul.
To greet the God, from earth's fair bosom flow'd
All nature's incense in a fragrant cloud,
More grateful far than those gross fumes impart,
Which torturing fires extract by chymic art.
Like paradise appear'd each blissful scene
Of purple gardens, and enclosures green,
Of bloomy hedges, and of waving woods,
Of flowery meads, and rushy-fringed floods:
Where silver swans, with snowy pride elate,
Their tall necks mantling, sail'd along in state,
By instinct taught their ozier nests to make
On the dank margin of the lucid lake.
Brisk Chanticleer wav'd high his coral crest,
And crowing clapt his pinions to his breast;
With orient heel he lightly spurn'd the ground,
And chuck'd for joy at every corn he found;
And as he strutted on in gallant pride,
Two wives obsequious waited at his side;
For cocks, that couple with their nearest kin,
Hold bygamy a pardonable sin.
The peacock proudly pac'd upon the plain,
And like a circle bent his gaudy train,
Where vivid colours brightly-beaming strove;
He seem'd beneath a canopy to move:
His starry plumes reflected various dyes,
Resembling Argus with his hundred eyes.
Where leafy branches form'd a secret shade
The painted birds their cunning fabricks made,
Or on the oak, or implicated thorn,
And wanton'd in the beauty of the morn.
Her wary stand the watchful spider took
In the glass window, or some gloomy nook,
There wove her web, in filmy texture sly,
To captivate the little gnat, or fly.
Beneath the trees that screen the lovely vale,
Within the limits of the fencing pale,
March nimble-footed deer in rank array'd,
Or seek the shelter of the green-wood shade:
Young kids, light skipping, and the timorous fawns
Brush thro' the copse, and bound along the lawns:
While in fresh pastures or on fallows gray
Lambs nibble in the wantonness of play.

Emerging from their coral-paven cave
Thetis and Doris walk upon the wave,
But stream-presiding nymphs, and naiads trim,
By the clear current, or the fountain's brim,
Such as we name our gentle maids that rove
By waters welling in the grassy grove,
Culling green boughs, and bells, and flowerets fair,
And weaving garlands for their golden hair;
Some sweetly sing, some lead the festive round;
The distant dales re-echoe to the sound:
And thoughtful lovers to the winds complain,
To mitigate the madness of their pain;
Now warbling madrigals so light and gay,
Now pale and pensive the long summer's day;
Some write in high heroics to the fair,
Some live in hope, and some thro' sad despair
In every place a purgatory find;
Such is the moody genius of their mind.

All gentle hearts confess the quickening spring,
For May invigorates every living thing.
Hark! how the merry minstrels of the grove
Devote the day to melody and love;
The ouzle shrill, that haunts the thorny dale,
The mellow thrush, the love-lorn nightingale;
Their little breasts with emulation swell,
And sweetly strive in singing to excell.
In the thick forest feeds the cooing dove;
The starling whistles various notes of love:
The sparrow chirps, the clefted walls among;
To the sweet wildness of the linnet's song,
To the harsh cuckoo, and the twittering quail
Resounds the wood, the river, and the vale;
And tender twigs, all trembling on the trees,
Dance to the murmuring music of the bees.
Upspring the airy larks, shrill-voic'd and loud,
And breathe their mattins from a morning cloud,
To greet glad Nature, and the God of day,
And flowery Venus, blooming queen of May;
The songs of praise their tuneful breasts employ,
Charm every ear, and wrap the soul in joy.
Thus sung the sweet musicians on the spray;

Welcome, thou Lord of light, and lamp of day;
Welcome to tender herbs, and myrtle bowers,
Welcome to plants, and odour-breathing flowers;
Welcome to every root upon the plain,
Welcome to gardens, and the golden grain:
Welcome to birds that build upon the breere,
Welcome, great Lord and Ruler of the year:
Welcome, thou Source of universal good,
Of buds to boughs, and beauty to the wood:
Welcome, bright Phœbus, whose prolific power
In every meadow spreads out every flower;
Where-e'er thy beams in mild effulgence play,
Kind Nature smiles, and all the world is gay.