5. MAY MORNING. Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, - JOHN MILTON. 6. HUNTING SONG. WAKEN, lords and ladies gay, On the mountain dawns the day, All the jolly chase is here, With hawk, and horse, and hunting-spear! Hawks are whistling, horns are knelling, Merrily, merrily, mingle they, "Waken, lords and ladies gay." Waken, lords and ladies gay, The mist has left the mountain gray, And foresters have busy been, To track the buck in thickest green : Waken, lords and ladies gay, Louder, louder chant the lay, Time, stern huntsman! who can balk, GET up, get up for shame! the blooming morn Fresh-quilted colours through the air : B Get up, sweet-slug-a-bed, and see The dew bespangling herb and tree. Nay! not so much as out of bed? When all the birds have matins said, And sung their thankful hymns: 'tis sin, Nay, profanation, to keep in, Whenas a thousand virgins on this day, Spring, sooner than the lark, to fetch in May. Rise; and put on your foliage, and be seen Gems in abundance upon you: Retires himself, or else stands still Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying : Few beads are best, when once we go a Maying. Come, my Corinna, come; and coming, mark Or branch: each porch, each door, ere this, Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove; And sin no more, as we have done, by staying; There's not a budding boy or girl, this day, Back, and with white-thorn laden home. And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth, Many a green-gown has been given; Many a kiss, both odd and even : Many a jest told of the keys betraying This night, and locks picked:-yet we're not a Maying. Come, let us go, while we are in our prime ; And take the harmless folly of the time! We shall grow old apace, and die Before we know our liberty. And as a vapour, or a drop of rain So when or you or I are made A fable, song, or fleeting shade : Lies drowned with us in endless night. Then while time serves, and we are but decaying, Come, my Corinna! come, let's go a Maying. - ROBERT HERRICK. 8. THE STORY OF A SUMMER DAY. O PERFECT Light, which shaid away And set a ruler o'er the day, Thy glory, when the day forth flies, More vively does appear, Than at midday unto our eyes The shining sun is clear. The shadow of the earth anon Removes and drawès by, While in the east, when it is gone, Appears a clearer sky. Which soon perceive the little larks, The lapwing and the snipe, And tune their songs, like Nature's clerks, O'er meadow, muir, and stripe. |