38

FANNY OF THE DALE.

L

I.

ET the declining damask rose With envious grief look pale; The fummer bloom more freely glows In Fanny of the dale.

II.

Is there a fweet that decks the field,
Or fcents the morning gale;
Can fuch a vernal fragrance yield,
As Fanny of the Dale?

III.

The painted belles, at court rever'd,
Look lifeless, cold, and ftale:

How faint their beauties, when compar'd
With Fanny of the dale!

IV.

The willows bind Paftora's brows,
Her fond advances fail :

For Damon pays his warmeft vows
To Fanny of the Dale.

V.

Might honeft truth, at laft, fucceed,
And artless love prevail;

Thrice happy cou'd he tune his reed,
With Fanny of the dale!

A

'Till this enchanting Rofe : Had fix'd my wand'ring eye.

It fcented every breeze,

That wanton'd o'er the ftream, Or trembled through the trees, To meet the morning beam.

II.

To deck that beauteous maid,
Its fragrance can't excel,
From fome celeftial fhade
The damafk charmer fell:

And as her balmy fweets,
On Chloe's breaft fhe pours,
The Queen of BEAUTY greets
The gentle Queen of FLOWERS.

STANZAS

Ο

I.

VIRG.

'ER Nature's fresh bofom, by verdure unbound,

Bleak Winter blooms lovely as Spring:

Rich flow'rets (how fragrant!) rife wantonly round,

And Summer's wing'd chorifters fing!

II.

To greet the young monarch of Britain's bleft ifle,

The groves with gay bloffoms are grac'd! The primrose peeps forth with an innocent fmile, And cowflips croud forward in hafte !