RECITATIVE.
Thus, Queen of Beauty, as thy Poets feign,
While thou didst call the lovely swain;
Transform'd by heavenly power,
The lovely fwain arofe a flower,
And, fmiling, grac'd the plain.
And now he blooms, and now he fades ;
Venus and gloomy Proferpine
Alternate claim his charms divine;
By turns reftor'd to light, by turns he seeks the shades.
Tranfporting joy,
Tormenting fears,
Reviving fmiles,
Succeeding tears,
Are Cupid's various train.
The tyrant boy
Prepares his darts,
With foothing wiles,
With cruel arts,
And pleasure blends with pain.
RECITATIVE.
YOUNG Strephon, by his folded sheep,
Sat wakeful on the plains :
Love held his weary eyes from fleep,
While, filent in the vale,
The liftening nightingale
Forgot her own, to hear his ftrains.
And now the beauteous Queen of Night,
Unclouded and ferene,
Sheds on the neighbouring fea her filver light; The neighbouring sea was calm and bright; The shepherd fung infpir'd, and blefs'd the lovely scene.
While the fky and feas are fhining,
See, my Flora's charms they wear;
Secret night, my joys divining,
Pleas'd my amorous tale to hear;
Smiles, and foftly turns her fphere.
While the sky and feas are fhining,
See, my Flora's charms they wear.
RECITATIVE.
Ah, foolish Strephon! change thy strain ;
The lovely scene false joy inspires:
For look, thou fond, deluded fwain,
A rifing ftorm, invades the main !
The Planet of the night,
Inconftant, from thy fight
Behind a cloud retires.
Flora is fled; thou lov'ft in vain :
Ah, foolish Strephon! change thy, ftrain.
Like the moon and ocean changing,
More inconftant proves than they,
FAIR rival to the god of day,
Beauty, to thy cœleftial ray
A thousand sprightly fruits we owe;
Gay wit, and moving eloquence,
And every art t' improve the fenfe,
And every grace that fhines below.
Not Phoebus does our fongs infpire,
Nor did Cyllenius form the lyre,
'Tis thou art Mufick's living spring;
To thee the Poet tunes his lays,
And, fweetly warbling Beauty's praise,
Describes the power that makes him fing.
III.
Painters from thee their skill derive,
By thee their works to ages live,
For ev'n thy fhadows give furprize,
As when we view in crystal streams
The morning fun, and rifing beams
That feem to fhoot from other skies.
IV.
Enchanting vifion! who can be
Unmov'd that turns his eyes on thee?
Yet brighter ftill thy glories fhine,
And double charms thy power improve,
When Beauty, dreft in fmiles of Love,
Grows, like its parent Heaven, divine!
LOVE frowns in beauteous Myra's eyes;
Ah, nymph! those cruel looks give o'er.
While Love is frowning, Beauty dies,
And you can charm no more.
RECITATIVE.
Mark, how when fullen clouds appear,
And wintery storms deface the year,
The prudent cranes no longer stay,
But take the wing, and through the air,
From the cold region fly away,
And far o'er land and feas to warmer climes repair.
Juft fo, my heart-But fee-Ah no!
She fmiles-I will not, cannot go.
Love and the Graces fmiling,
In Myra's eyes beguiling,
Again their charms recover.
Would you fecure our duty,
Let kindness aid your beauty,
Ye fair, to footh the lover.
|