University of Virginia Library

SONG.

[Wake, ye nightingales, oh, wake!]

Wake, ye nightingales, oh, wake!
Can ye, idlers, sleep so long?
Quickly this dull silence break;
Burst enraptur'd into song:
Shake your plumes, your eyes unclose,
No pretext for more repose.
Tell me not, that Winter drear
Still delays your promis'd tale,
That no blossoms yet appear,
Save the snow-drop in the dale
Tell me not the woods are bare;—
Vain excuse! prepare! prepare!

200

View the hillock, view the meads:
All are verdant, all are gay;
Julia comes, and with her leads
Health, and Youth, and blooming May.
When she smiles, fresh roses blow;
Where she treads, fresh lilies grow.
Hail! ye groves of Bagley, hail!
Fear no more the chilling air:
Can your beauties ever fail?
Julia has pronounc'd you fair.
She could cheer a cavern's gloom,
She could make a desert bloom.