PASTORALS.
13
THENOT.
See Lightfoot; he shall tend them close: and I,
'Tween whiles, across the plain will glance mine eye.
See Lightfoot; he shall tend them close: and I,
'Tween whiles, across the plain will glance mine eye.
COLINET.
Where to begin I know not, where to end.
Does there one smiling hour my youth attend? 36
Though few my days, as well my follies show,
Yet are those days all clouded o'er with woe:
No happy gleam of sunshine doth appear,
My lowering sky, and wintery months, to chear. 40
My piteous plight in yonder naked tree,
Which bears the thunder-scar, too plain I see:
Quite destitute it stands of shelter kind,
The mark of storms, and sport of every wind: 44
The riven trunk feels not th' approach of spring;
Nor birds among the leafless branches sing:
No more, beneath thy shade, shall shepherds throng
With jocund tale, or pipe, or pleasing song. 48
Ill-fated tree! and more ill fated I!
From thee, from me, alike the shepherds fly.
Where to begin I know not, where to end.
Does there one smiling hour my youth attend? 36
Though few my days, as well my follies show,
Yet are those days all clouded o'er with woe:
No happy gleam of sunshine doth appear,
My lowering sky, and wintery months, to chear. 40
My piteous plight in yonder naked tree,
Which bears the thunder-scar, too plain I see:
Quite destitute it stands of shelter kind,
The mark of storms, and sport of every wind: 44
The riven trunk feels not th' approach of spring;
Nor birds among the leafless branches sing:
No more, beneath thy shade, shall shepherds throng
With jocund tale, or pipe, or pleasing song. 48
Ill-fated tree! and more ill fated I!
From thee, from me, alike the shepherds fly.
THENOT.
Sure thou in hapless hour of time wast born,
When blighting mildews spoil the rising corn, 52
Sure thou in hapless hour of time wast born,
When blighting mildews spoil the rising corn, 52
Or
