130
Epistles.
What cheering scents these bord'ring banks exhale!
How loud that heifer lows from yonder vale!
That thrush how shrill! his note so clear, so high, 35
He drowns each feather'd minstrel of the sky.
Here let me trace beneath the purpled Morn
The deepmouth'd beagle and the sprightly horn,
Or lure the trout with well dissembled flies,
Or fetch the flutt'ring partridge from the skies. 40
Nor shall thy hand disdain to crop the vine,
The downy peach or flavour'd nectarine,
Or rob the beehive of its golden hoard,
And bear th' unbought luxuriance to thy board.
Sometimes my books by day shall kill the hours, 45
While from thy needle rise the silken flow'rs,
And thou by turns to ease my feeble sight
Resume the volume and deceive the night.
Oh! when I mark thy twinkling eyes opprest,
Soft whisp'ring let me warn my love to rest, 50
Then watch thee charm'd while sleep locks ev'ry sense,
And to sweet Heav'n commend thy innocence.
Thus reign'd our fathers o'er the rural sold,
Wise, hale, and honest, in the days of old,
Till courts arose where substance pays for show, 55
And specious joys are bought with real wo.
See Flavia's pendants large, well spread and right;
The ear that wears them hears a fool each night.
Mark how th' embroider'd col'nel sneaks away
To shun the with'ring dame that made him gay. 60
How loud that heifer lows from yonder vale!
That thrush how shrill! his note so clear, so high, 35
He drowns each feather'd minstrel of the sky.
Here let me trace beneath the purpled Morn
The deepmouth'd beagle and the sprightly horn,
Or lure the trout with well dissembled flies,
Or fetch the flutt'ring partridge from the skies. 40
Nor shall thy hand disdain to crop the vine,
The downy peach or flavour'd nectarine,
Or rob the beehive of its golden hoard,
And bear th' unbought luxuriance to thy board.
Sometimes my books by day shall kill the hours, 45
While from thy needle rise the silken flow'rs,
And thou by turns to ease my feeble sight
Resume the volume and deceive the night.
Oh! when I mark thy twinkling eyes opprest,
Soft whisp'ring let me warn my love to rest, 50
Then watch thee charm'd while sleep locks ev'ry sense,
And to sweet Heav'n commend thy innocence.
Thus reign'd our fathers o'er the rural sold,
Wise, hale, and honest, in the days of old,
Till courts arose where substance pays for show, 55
And specious joys are bought with real wo.
See Flavia's pendants large, well spread and right;
The ear that wears them hears a fool each night.
Mark how th' embroider'd col'nel sneaks away
To shun the with'ring dame that made him gay. 60
