T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
“In the Pleasant Month of May”
Anonymous(From Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1707) IN the pleasant Month of May, | |
| When the merry, merry Birds began to sing; | |
| And the Blossoms fresh and gay; | |
| Usher’d in the welcome Spring, | |
| When the long cold Winter’s gone, | 5 |
| And the bright enticing Moon, | |
| In the Evening sweetly shone; | |
| When the bonny Men and Maids tripped it on the Grass; | |
| At a jolly Country Fair, | |
| When the Nymphs in the best appear; | 10 |
| We resolv’d to be free, with a Fiddle and a She, | |
| Every Shepherd and his Lass. | |
| In the middle of the Sport, | |
| When the Fiddle went brisk and the Glass went round, | |
| And the Pretty gay Nymphs for Court, | 15 |
| With their Merry Feet beat the Ground; | |
| Little Cupid armed unseen, | |
| With a Bow and Dart stole in, | |
| With a conquering Air and Mien, | |
| And emptied his Bow thro’ the Nymphs and the Swains; | 20 |
| Every Shepherd and his Mate, | |
| Soon felt their pleasing Fate, | |
| And longing to try in Enjoyment to die, | |
| Love reigned o’er all the Plains. | |
| Now the sighing Swain gave o’er, | 25 |
| And the wearied Nymphs could dance no more, | |
| There were other Thoughts that mov’d, | |
| Ev’ry pretty kind Pair that Lov’d: | |
| In the Woods the Shepherds lay, | |
| And mourned the time away, | 30 |
| And the Nymphs as well as they, | |
| Longed to taste what it is that their Senses cloys, | |
| Till at last by consent of Eyes, | |
| Ev’ry Swain with his pretty Nymph flies, | |
| Ev’ry Buxom She retires with her He, | 35 |
| To act Love’s solid Joys. | |