Then to come, in spite of sorrow, And at my window bid good-morrow, Through the sweet-brier or the vine, Or the twisted eglantine:
While the cock, with lively din, Scatters the rear of darkness thin, 50 And to the stack, or the barn-door, Stoutly struts his dames before: Oft listening how the hounds and horn Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, From the side of some hoar hill, Through the high wood echoing shrill; Some time walking, not unseen, By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, Right against the eastern gate Where the great sun begins his state, Robed in flames, and amber light, 61 The clouds in thousand liveries dight; While the ploughman, near at hand, Whistles o'er the furrow'd land, And the milkmaid singeth blithe, And the mower whets his scythe, And every shepherd tells his tale, Under the hawthorn in the dale.
Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures,
Whilst the landscape round it measures;
Russet lawns, and fallows grey, Where the nibbling flocks do stray; Mountains, on whose barren breast The labouring clouds do often rest; Meadows trim, with daisies pied, Shallow brooks, and rivers wide; Towers and battlements it sees Bosom'd high in tufted trees,
Vhere, perhaps, some beauty lies, The cynosure of neighbouring eyes. So Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks, Where Corydon and Thyrsis met, Are at their savoury dinner set Of herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses; And then in haste her bower she leaves, With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; Or, if the earlier season lead, To the tann'd haycock in the mead. 90 Sometimes, with secure delight,
The upland hamlets will invite, When the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks sound To many a youth and many a maid Dancing in the checker'd shade; And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holyday, Till the live-long daylight fail: Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, With stories told of many a feat,
How fairy Mab the junkets eat; She was pinch'd, and pull'd, she said; And he, by friar's lantern led,
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat To earn his cream-bowl duly set, When, in one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn, That ten day-labourers could not end; Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, 110 And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength;
And, crop-full, out of doors he flings, Ere the first cock his matin rings. Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, By whispering winds soon lull'd asleep. Tower'd cities please us then, And the busy hum of men,
Where throngs of knights and barons bold. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize 122 Of wit or arms, while both contend To win her grace, whom all commend. There let Hymen oft appear In saffron robe, with taper clear, And pomp, and feast, and revelry, With mask and antique pageantry; Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson's learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild. And ever, against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs, Married to immortal verse,
Such as the meeting soul may pierce, In notes, with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out, 140 With wanton heed and giddy cunning, The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony;
That Orpheus' self may heave his head, From golden slumber on a bed
Of heap'd Elysian flowers, and hear Such strains as would have won the ear Of Pluto, to have quite set free His half-regain'd Eurydice. These delights if thou canst give,
Mirth with thee I mean to live.
HENCE, vain deluding joys,
The brood of Folly, without father bred! How little you bested,
Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys!
Dwell in some idle brain,
And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless
As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, Or likest hovering dreams,
The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.
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