PASTORAL I.-MORNING.

Around your seat the silent lambs advance,

And scrambling he-goats on the mountains dance.

DAMON.

But haste, Alexis, reach yon leafy shade, Which mantling ivy round the oaks hath made; There we'll retire, and list the warbling note

That flows melodious from the blackbird's throat; numbers shall his songs inspire,

Your

easy

PASTORAL II-NOON...

CORYDON-TIMANTHES.

CORYDON.

THE sun the summit of his orb hath gain'd,
No flecker'd clouds his azure path hath stain'd,
Our pregnant ewes around us cease to graze,
Stung with the keenness of his sultry rays;
The weary bullock from the yoke is led,
And youthful shepherds from the plains are fled
To dusky shades, where scarce a glimm❜ring ray
Can dart its lustre thro' the leafy spray.

Yon cooling riv❜let where the waters gleam,
Where springing flow'rs adorn the limpid stream,
Inyites us where the drooping willow grows,
To guide our flocks, and take a cool repose.

TIMANTHES.

To thy advice a grateful ear I'll lend, .

The shades I'll court where slender osiers bend;

PASTORAL II.-NOON.

Our weanings young shall crop the rising flow'r, While we retire to yon twining bow'r ;

The woods shall echo back thy cheerful strains, Admir'd by all our Caledonian swains.

CORYDON.

There have I oft with gentle Delia stray'd, Amidst th' embow'ring solitary shade; Before the gods to thwart my wishes strove, By blasting ev'ry pleasing glimpse of love; For Delia wanders o'er the Anglian plains, Where civil discord and sedition reigns.. There Scotia's sons in odious light appear, Tho' we for them have way'd the hostile spear; For them my sire, enwrap'd in curdled gore, Breath'd his last moments on a foreign shore.

TIMANTHES.

Six lunar months, my friend, will soon expire,

And she return to crown your fond desire.

PASTORAL II.-NOON.

For her O rack not your desponding mind!
In Delia's breast a gen'rous flame's confin'd;
That burns for Corydon, whose piping lay
Hath caus'd the tedious moments steal away :
Whose strains melodious mov'd the falling floods,
To whisper Delia to the rising woods.

! if your sighs could aid the floating gales, That favourably swell their lofty sails,

Ne'er should

your sobs their rapid flight give oʻèr...

Till Delia's presence grac'd our northern shore.

CORYDON.

Though Delia greet my love, I sigh in vain,

Such joy unbounded can I ne'er obtain.

Her sire a thousand fleeces numbers o'er,
And

grassy hills increase his milky store; While the weak fences of a scanty fold

Will all my sheep and fatt'ning lambkins hold..

PASTORAL II-NOON.

TIMANTHES.

Ah, hapless youth! although the early muse Painted her semblance on thy youthful brows; Tho' she with laurels twin'd thy temples round, And in thy ear distill'd the magic sound; A cheerless poverty attends thy woes,

Your song melodious unrewarded flows.

CORYDON.

Think not, Timanthes, that for wealth I pine,. Tho' all the fates to make me poor combine ; Tay bounding o'er his banks with awful sway, Bore all my corn and all my flecks away. Of Jove's dread precepts did I e'er complain? 'Ere curse the rapid flood or dashing rain? Ev'n now I sigh not for my former store, But wish the Gods had destin❜d Delia poor.

TIMANTHES.

'Tis joy, my friend, to think I can repay The loss you bore by Autumn's rigid sway