May sweets grow here: and smoke from hence Let balm and cassia send their scent May no wolf howl, or screech-owl stir 70 No boisterous winds, or storms, come hither May all shy maids, at wonted hours, Upon thine altar! then return, TO KEEP A TRUE LENT The larder lean? Is it to quit the dish Of flesh, yet still To fill The platter high with fish? Is it to fast an hour, Or show Thy sheaf of wheat, Unto the hungry soul. To circumcise thy life. And that's to keep thy Lent. TO 20 For, if such holy song Enwrap our fancy long, And then at last our bliss But now begins; for from this happy day In straiter limits bound, Not half so far casts his usurped sway, And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, 171 Time will run back and fetch the Age of Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail. Gold; HENCE, loathed Melancholy, Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn, 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy, Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night-raven sings; There under ebon shades, and low-browed rocks, As ragged as thy locks, In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. The frolic Wind that breathes the spring, And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, 20 Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest and youthful Jollity, Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, 30 |