ODL

TIO

PASTORAL III.-NIGHT.

FLORELLUS.

Wide o'er the orient sky the moon appears,

A foe to Darkness and his idle fears;

Around her orb the stars in clusters shine,

And distant planets 'tend her silver shrine.

AMYNTAS.

Hush'd are the busy numbers of the day;
On downy couch they sleep, their hours away.
Hail, balmy sleep, that soothes the troubled mind
Lock'd in thy arms, our cares a refuge find.
Oft do you tempt us with delusive dreams,
When wildering Fancy darts her dazzling beams.
Asleep, the lover with his mistress strays
Thro' lonely thickets and untrodden ways;
But when pale Cynthia's sable empire's fled,
And hovering slumbers shun the morning bed,
Rous'd by the dawn, he wakes with frequent sigh,
And all his flattering visions quickly fly.

PASTORAL III.-NIGHT.

FLORELLUS.

Now owls and bats infest the midnight scene; Dire snakes envenom'd twine along the green; Forsook by man the rivers mourning glide, And groaning echoes swell the noisy tide; Straight to our cottage let us bend our way; My drowsy powers confess sleep's magic sway. Easy and calm upon our couch we'll lie,

While sweet reviving slumbers round our pil-lows fly.

THE COMPLAINT.

A PASTORAL.

NEAR the heart of a fair-spreading grove, Whose foliage shaded the green,

A shepherd, repining at love,

In anguish was heard to complain.

"O Cupid! thou wanton young boy!

"Since, with thy invisible dart,

"Thou hast robb'd a fond youth of his joy, "In return grant the wish of his heart..

"Send a shaft so severe from thy bow,

(His pining, his sighs, to remove,)

"That Stella, once wounded, may know

"How keen are the arrows of love..

THE COMPLAINT.

"No swain once so happy as I,

"Nor tun'd with more pleasure the reed; My breast never vented a sigh,

"Till Stella approach'd the gay mead.

"With mirth, with contentment endow'd,

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My hours they flew wantonly by;

"I sought no repose in the wood,

"Nor from my few sheep would I fly.

"Now my reed I have carelessly broke;

"Its melody pleases no more:

"I pay no regard to a flock

"That seldom hath wander'd before.

"O Stella! whose beauty so fair
"Excels the bright splendor of day,

"Ah! have you no pity to share

"With Damon thus fall'n to decay?

THE COMPLAINT.

"For you have I quitted the plain;

"Forsaken my sheep and my fold:

"To you in dull languor and pain "My tedious moments' are told.

<<< For you have my roses grown pale;
"They have faded untimely away:
"And will not such beauty bewail
"A shepherd thus fall'n to decay.

"Since your eyes still requite me with scorn, "And kill with their merciless ray;

Like a star at the dawning of morn,
"I fall to their lustre a prey.

"Some swain who shall mournfully go "To whisper love's sigh to the shade,

"Will haply some charity shew,

"And under the tu rf see me laid.