AWAKE MY LOVE.
SONG X.
1
“Awake my love, ere morning's ray
Throws off night's weed of pilgrim gray;
Erewhile the hare denn'd close from view,
Licks from her fleece the clover dew;
Or wild swan claps her snowy wings,
By hunter's rous'd, at secret springs;
Or birds upon the boughs awake
In song, till all the forests shake.”
2
She waken'd, and unclos'd her eye,
Like star new woke in frozen sky;
Dark curling locks her cheeks enclose,
Like fleece of thyme grown round a rose;
She comb'd the comely clusters down,
She lac'd her jupes, and clasp'd her shoon;
And from the cot, by Preston-burn,
Issued the rival light of morn.
3
Forth as we walk'd love-list'ning round,
Harmonious waken'd rural sound;
The speckled lark, abreast by mate,
Career'd in song for heaven's gate:
From stripling tree replied the thrush,
The goldspink chirm'd from dewy bush;
And plover, fed on heather crop,
Called from the misty mountain top.
4
“Sweet, said the maiden, while the day
Brightens to gold from silver gray,
To witness wood, and hedge, and brake,
Instinct with soul of song awake;
The smoke ascend in slender wreath,
From cottages embower'd beneath;
Where the blythe mower hastes along,
With glistering scythe and rural song.”
5
My lovely Jean, and dost thou mark,
The moral note of mounting lark;
Tak'st thou from Nature's counsellor tongue,
The warning precept of her song?
Each bird that shakes the dewy grove,
Warms his wild note with nuptial love;
Brute, bird, and bee, with gracious sound,
Whisper the sweets of wedlock round,
6
Red blush'd she as a fresh sprung flower,
Upblossom'd through the morning show'r;
Untied her snood of sea-green fold,
Bedropp'd with grass-hoppers of gold:
Her rosie palm she laid in mine,
And blush'd, “Sweet laddie I am thine;”
In native loveliness she shone,
A feast fit for the gods alone.
