35
Let spring attend, and sudden flow'rs arise;
Let op'ning roses knotted oaks adorn,[16]
And liquid amber drop from ev'ry thorn.
Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along!
The birds shall cease to tune their ev'ning song, 40
The winds to breathe, the waving woods to move,
And streams to murmur, ere I cease to love.[17]
Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain,[18]
Not balmy sleep to lab'rers faint with pain,[19]
Not show'rs to larks, or sunshine to the bee, 45
Are half so charming as thy sight to me.[20]
Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!
Come, Delia, come; ah, why this long delay?
Through rocks and caves the name of Delia sounds,
Delia, each cave and echoing rock rebounds. 50
Ye pow'rs, what pleasing frenzy soothes my mind!
Do lovers dream, or is my Delia kind?[21]
She comes, my Delia comes!--Now cease my lay,[22]
And cease, ye gales, to bear my sighs away!
Next AEgon sung, while Windsor groves admired; 55
Rehearse, ye muses, what yourselves inspired.
Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain!
Of perjured Doris, dying I complain:[23]
Here, where the mountains, less'ning as they rise,
Lose the low vales, and steal into the skies: 60
While lab'ring oxen, spent with toil and heat,
In their loose traces from the field retreat:[24]
While curling smokes from village tops are seen,
And the fleet shades glide o'er the dusky green.[25]
Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay! 65
Beneath yon poplar oft we passed the day:
Oft on the rind I carved her am'rous vows,[26]
While she with garlands hung the bending boughs:
The garlands fade, the vows are worn away;
So dies her love, and so my hopes decay. 70
Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain!
Now bright Arcturus[27] glads the teeming grain,
Now golden fruits on loaded branches shine,
And grateful clusters swell with floods of wine;[28]
Now blushing berries paint the yellow grove; 75
Just Gods! shall all things yield returns but love?
Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay!
The shepherds cry, "Thy flocks are left a prey"--
Ah! what avails it me, the