YE shepherds! so cheerful and gay, Nor talk of the change that ye find; I have left my dear Phillis behind. Now I know what it is to have strove With the torture of doubt and desire; What it is to admire and to love, And to leave her we love and admire. Ah! lead forth my flock in the morn, And the damps of each evening repel; Alas! I am faint and forlorn :— I have bade my dear Phillis farewell. Since Phillis vouchsafed me a look, Beyond all that had pleased me before; But why do I languish in vain ? Why wander thus pensively here? The pride of that valley, is flown; When forced the fair nymph to forego, The pilgrim that journeys all day Is happy, nor heard to repine; Soft Hope is the relic I bear, And my solace wherever I go, II. HOPE. My banks they are furnish'd with bees, And my hills are white over with sheep. Such health do my fountains bestow; Not a pine in my grove is there seen, But a sweetbriar entwines it around: One would think she might like to retire To prune the wild branches away. From the plains, from the woodlands and groves, From thickets of roses that blow! And when her bright form shall appear, I have found where the wood-pigeons breed; But let me that plunder forbear, She will say 'twas a barbarous deed: I have heard her with sweetness unfold, And she call'd it the sister of Love. Can a bosom so gentle remain Unmoved when her Corydon sighs? Will a nymph that is fond of the plain, These plains and this valley despise ? Dear regions of silence and shade! Soft scenes of contentment and ease! Where I could have pleasingly stray'd, If aught in her absence could please. But where does my Phillida stray? And where are her grots and her bowers? Are the groves and the valleys as gay, And the shepherds as gentle as ours? The groves may perhaps be as fair, III. SOLICITUDE. WHY will you my passion reprove? you that have been of her train, For when Paridel tries in the dance mind! And his crook is bestudded around; And his pipe-oh! may Phillis beware Of a magic there is in the sound! |