| |
| IF aught of oaten stop or pastoral song | |
| May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear | |
| Like thy own solemn springs, | |
| Thy springs and dying gales; | |
| |
| O Nymph reserved,—while now the bright-hair’d sun | 5 |
| Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts, | |
| With brede ethereal wove, | |
| O’erhang his wavy bed, | |
| |
| Now air is hush’d, save where the weak-eyed bat | |
| With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing, | 10 |
| Or where the beetle winds | |
| His small but sullen horn, | |
| |
| As oft he rises midst the twilight path, | |
| Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum,— | |
| Now teach me, maid composed, | 15 |
| To breathe some soften’d strain. | |
| |
| Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale, | |
| May not unseemly with its stillness suit; | |
| As, musing slow, I hail | |
| Thy genial loved return. | 20 |
| |
| For when thy folding-star arising shows | |
| His paly circlet, at his warning-lamp | |
| The fragrant Hours, and Elves | |
| Who slept in buds the day, | |
| |
| And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge | 25 |
| And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still, | |
| The pensive Pleasures sweet, | |
| Prepare thy shadowy car. | |
| |
| Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene; | |
| Or find some ruin midst its dreary dells, | 30 |
| Whose walls more awful nod | |
| By thy religious gleams. | |
| |
| Or, if chill blustering winds or driving rain | |
| Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut | |
| That, from the mountain’s side, | 35 |
| Views wilds and swelling floods, | |
| |
| And hamlets brown, and dim-discover’d spires; | |
| And hears their simple bell; and marks o’er all | |
| Thy dewy fingers draw | |
| The gradual dusky veil. | 40 |
| |
| While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont, | |
| And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve! | |
| While Summer loves to sport | |
| Beneath thy lingering light; | |
| |
| While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves; | 45 |
| Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air, | |
| Affrights thy shrinking train | |
| And rudely rends thy robes; | |
| |
| So long, regardful of thy quiet rule, | |
| Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace, | 50 |
| Thy gentlest influence own, | |
| And love thy favourite name! | |
| |
