| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | The Happy Swain | | By Ambrose Philips (1674–1749) |
| | | HAVE ye seen the morning sky, | |
| When the dawn prevails on high, | |
| When, anon, some purple ray | |
| Gives a sample of the day, | |
| When, anon, the lark, on wing, | 5 |
| Strives to soar, and strains to sing? | |
| |
| Have ye seen the ethereal blue | |
| Gently shedding silvery dew, | |
| Spangling o’er the silent green, | |
| While the nightingale, unseen, | 10 |
| To the moon and stars, full bright, | |
| Lonesome chants the hymn of night? | |
| |
| Have ye seen the broider’d May | |
| All her scented bloom display, | |
| Breezes opening, every hour, | 15 |
| This, and that, expecting flower, | |
| While the mingling birds prolong, | |
| From each bush, the vernal song? | |
| |
| Have ye seen the damask rose | |
| Her unsully’d blush disclose, | 20 |
| Or the lily’s dewy bell, | |
| In her glossy white, excell, | |
| Or a garden vary’d o’er | |
| With a thousand glories more? | |
| |
| By the beauties these display, | 25 |
| Morning, evening, night, or day; | |
| By the pleasures these excite, | |
| Endless sources of delight! | |
| Judge, by them, the joys I find, | |
| Since my Rosalind was kind, | 30 |
| Since she did herself resign | |
| To my vows, for ever mine. | | | | |
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