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1747
St.Agnes Fast; or the Amorous Maiden. A Pastoral.
[in Relph's Miscellany of Poems above.]
pp. 94-97. h.c.
Mock-eclogue.
The speaker has fasted all day and hopes to do so all night in order to bring Roger, whom she loves, to her side. All the omens point to Roger loving her — her
O' ane wi' neen it was my luck to light:
This fain I underneath my bouster lied,
And gat as fast as e'er I cou'd to bed:
I dreamt — the pleasant dreem I's neer forgit:
And ah this cruel Roger comes not yet.
A pippin frae an apple fair I cut,
And clwose atween my thoom and finger put:
Then cry'd, whore wons my Luive, come tell me true:
And even forret stright away it flew;
It flew as Roger's house it wad hev hit,
And ah this cruel Roger comes not yet. [p.95]
As it appears that Roger is fated to come to her eventually, she concludes that there is no need for her to fast any longer:
With easy fingers op'd the silent door;
Thrice to her head she rais'd the luncheon brown
Thrice lick'd her lips and three times laid it down;
Purpos'd at length the very worst to prove:
'Twas easier sure to dye of ought than love. [Conclusion.]
This pastoral is even more obviously inspired by Gay's The Shepherd's Week than are Relph's other two.
Relph's Miscellany of Poems contains two poems entitled A Burlesque Epistle, and five other Epistles written in a similar style to those two, but none of the seven appears to be a burlesque in any of Bond's definitions.
All the poems by Relph mentioned above were included in Poems by . . . J. Relph . . . With the life of the author and a pastoral elegy on his death. By T. Sanderson, London, 1797. This work was reprinted in Carlisle, 1798.
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