Lovefick with odours! now to order roll'd,
It melts upon her bofom's dainty mould,
Or, curling round her waift, difparts its wavy gold.
Young-circling roses, blushing, round them throw
The sweet abundance of their purple rays,
And lillies, dip'd in fragrance, freshly blow,
With blended beauties, in her angel-face :
The humid radiance beaming from her eyes
The air and feas illumes, the earth and skies,
And open, where fhe fmiles, the sweets of Paradife.
On Zephyr's wing the laughing Goddess view
Diftilling balm: the cleaves the buxom air,
Attended by the filver-footed dew,
The ravages of winter to repair:
She gives her naked bosom to the gales,
Her naked bofom down the ether fails; [exhales.
Her bofom breathes delight; her breath the fpring
All as the Phoenix, in Arabian skies,
New-burnish'd from his fpicy funeral pyres,
At large, (i) in rofeal undulation, flies;
His plumage dazzles, and the gazer tires:
(i) In rofeal undulation] Pliny tells us, lib. xi. That the Phoenix is about the bignefs of an eagle: the feathers round
Around their King the plumy nations wait,
Attend his triumph, and augment his state:
He towering claps his wings, and wins th' etherial
height.
So round this Phoenix of the gaudy year
A thousand, nay ten thousand Sports and Smiles,
Fluttering in gold along the hemisphere,
Her praises chant; her praifes glad the isles:
Confcious of her approach (to deck her bowers)
Earth from her fruitful lap and bofom pours
A waste of springing fweets, and voluntary flowers.
Narciffus fair, in fnowy velvet gown'd;
Ah foolish! ftill to love the fountain-brim:
Sweet Hyacinth, by Phoebus erft bemoan'd;
And tulip, flaring in her powder'd trim :
Whate'er, Armida, in thy gardens blew ;
Whate'er the fun inhales, or fips the dew;
Whate'er compofe the chaplet on Ianthe's brow.
the neck shining like gold, the body of a purple colour, the tail blue with feathers resembling rofes. See Claudian's fine poem on that fubject, and an elegant tranflation of it by mr. Tickell in the first vol. of the Poetical Calendar, p. 42. See alfo Marcellus Donatus, who has a fhort differtation on the Phoenix in his obfervations on Tacitus, Annal. lib. vi.
He who (k) undaz'd can wander o'er her face,
May gain upon the folar-blaze at noon ! —
What more than female sweetness, and a grace
Peculiar! fave, Ianthe, thine alone,
Ineffable effufion of the day!
So very much the fame, that lovers fay,
May is Ianthe; or the dear Ianthe May.
So far as doth the harbinger of day
The leffer lamps of night in (1) fheen excell;
So far in sweetness and in beauty May
Above all other months doth bear the bell:
So far as May doth other months exceed,
So far in virtue and in (m) goodlihead,
Above all other nymphs Ianthe bears the (n) meed.
Welcome! as to a youthful poet wine,
To fire his fancy, and enlarge his foul:
He weaves the laurel-chaplet with the vine,
And grows immortal as he drains the bowl:
Welcome! as beauty to the lovefick swain,
For which he long had figh'd, but figh'd in vain ;
He darts into her arms; the fmiles away his pain.
The drowzy elements, arouz'd by thee,
Roll to harmonious measures, active all!
Earth, water, air, and fire, with feeling glee,
Exult to celebrate thy festival:
Fire burns intenfer; fofter breathes the air;
More fmooth the waters flow; earth fmiles more fair: Earth, water, air and fire, thy gladdening impulse
What boundless tides of fplendor o'er the skies,
O'erflowing brightness, stream their golden rays!
Heaven's azure kindles with the varying dies,
Reflects the glory, and returns the blaze:
Air whitens; wide the tracts of ether (0) been
With colours damask'd rich, and goodly fheen,
And all above is blue, and all below is green.
At thy approach the wild waves' loud uproar,
And foamy furges of the maddening main,
Forget to heave their mountains to the fhore,
Diffus'd into the level of the plain :
For thee the Halcyon builds her fummer's neft;
For thee the Ocean smooths her troubled breaft,
Gay from thy placid smiles, in thy own purple drest.
Have ye not feen, in gentle even-tide,
When Jupiter the earth hath richly shower'd,
Striding the clouds, a bow (p) dispredden wide,
As if with light inwove, and gayly flower'd
With bright variety of blending dies?
White, purple, yellow melt along the skies,
Alternate colours fink, alternate colours rife.
The earth's embroidery then have ye eyed,
And fmile of bloffoms, yellow, purple, white;
Their vernal-tinctur'd leaves, luxurious, died
In Flora's livery, painted by the Light:
Light's painted children in the breezes play,
Unfold their dewy bofoms to the
ray,
Their foft enamel spread, and beautify the day.
From the wide altar of the foodful earth
The flowers, the herbs, the plants their incenfe roll;
The orchards fwell the ruby-tinctur'd birth;
The vermil-gardens breathe the spicy foul:
Grateful to May the nectar-spirit flies,
The wafted clouds of lavish'd odours rife,
The Zephyr's balmy load, perfuming all the skies.
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