But when refplendent beauty's train
Commands the foft accordant lyre;
What transports breathe in ev'ry ftrain,
And kindle Love's celeftial fire!
Her cheeks he paints as blufhing dawn,
Her eyes to dim Apollo's rays,
Her breath more balmy than lawn`
When round the orient luftre plays.
Yet if fair Friendship's hallow'd flame
In his enraptur'd bofom glows,
His ftrain ftill rifes with his theme,
Each note still more divinely flows.
Let wretched misers clasp their ore,
And vulgar breasts in sense delight;
The mufe shall purer joys explore,
And wing a more exalted flight.
OW had the beam of Titan gay
Ufher'd in the blissful May,
Scatt'ring from his pearly bed,
Fresh dew on ev'ry mountain's head;
Nature mild and debonnair,
To thee, fair maid, yields up her care,
May, with gentle plastic hand,
Clothes in flow'ry robe the land;
O'er the vales the cowflips fpreads,
And eglantine beneath the fhades;
Violets blue befringe each fountain,
Woodbines lace each steepy mountain;
Hyacinths their sweets diffuse,
And the rose its blufh renews;
With the rest of Flora's train,⚫
Decking lowly dale or plain.
Thro' creation's range, fweet May! Nature's children own thy fwayWhether in the chryftal flood,
Am'rous, fport the finny brood;
Or the feather'd tribes declare,
That they breathe thy genial air,
While they warble in each grove
Sweetest notes of artless love;
Or their wound the beafts proclaim,
Smitten with a fiercer flame
Or the paffion higher rise,
Sparing none beneath the fkies,
But fwaying foft the human mind
With feelings of extatic kind-
Thro' wide creation's range, fweet May!
All Nature's children own thy fway.
Oft will I, (e'er Phosphor's* light
Quits the glimm'ring skirts of night)
Meet thee in the clover-field,
Where thy beauties thou fhalt yield
To my fancy, quick and warm,
Lift'ning to the dawn's alarm,
Sounded loud by +Chanticleer,
In peals that sharply pierce the ear.
And, as Sol his flaming car
Urges up the vaulted air,
Shunning quick the scorching ray,
I will to fome covert stray;
Coolly bow'rs or latent dells,
Where light-footed filence dwells,
And whispers to my heav'n-born dream,
Fair Schuylkill by thy winding ftream!
There I'll devote full many an hour,
To the still-finger'd Morphean-pow'r,
And entertain my thirsty foul
With draughts from Fancy's fairy bowl;
Or mount her orb of varied hue,
And scenes of heav'n and earth review.
Nor in milder Eve's decline,
As the fun forgets to shine,
And flopping down th' ætherial plain,
Plunges in the Western main,
Will I forbear due ftrain to pay
To the fong-inspiring May;
But as +Helper 'gins to move
Round the radiant court of Jove,
(Leading thro' the azure sky
All the ftarry progeny,
Emitting prone their filver light,
To re-illume the fhades of night)
Then, the dewy lawn along,
I'll carol forth my grateful fong,
Viewing with transported eye
The blazing orbs that roll on high,
Beaming luftre, bright and clear,
O'er the glowing hemisphere.
Thus from the early-blushing morn,
Till the dappled eve's return,
Will I, in free unlabour'd lay,
Sweetly fing the charming May!
ENCE with forrow, fpleen and care!
Mufe, awake the jocund air;
Wreathe thy brows in myrtle twine,
And affift the gay defign;
Strike the trembling ftring with pleasure,
Till it found the enchanting measure.
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