POETICAL CALENDAR.

AN

HYMN

Τ Ο

M A Y

BY WILLIAM THOMPSON, M. A. LATE FELLOW

OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, oxon.

Nunc formofi fimus annus.

VIRG.

ARGUMENT.

Subject proposed. Invocation of May. Descrip

tion of her: Her operations on nature. Bounty recommended; in particular at this season. Vernal apostrophe. Love the ruling paffion in May. The celebration of Venus her birth-day in this month. Rural retirement in Spring. Conclusion.

E

Therial daughter of the lusty Spring,

And sweet Favonius, ever-gentle May ! Shall. I, unblam'd, presume of thee to fing, And with thy living colours gild my lay? Vol. V.

B

Thy

Thy genial spirit mantles in my brain ;
My numbers languish in a softer vein:
I pant, too emulous, to flow in Spenser's strain.

а

Say, mild Aurora of the blooming year,
With storms when winter blackens Nature's face;
When whirling winds the howling forest tear,
And shake the folid mountains to their base :
Say, what refulgent chambers of the sky
Veil thy beloved glories from the eye, [die?
For which the nations pine, and earth's fair children

Where (a) Leda's twins, forth from their diamond-
Alternate, o'er the night their beams divide, [tower,
In light embosom'd, happy and secure
From winter-rage, thou chufest to abide;
Bleft residence! for there, as poets tell,
(b) The powers of Poetry and Wisdom dwell;
Apollo wakes the Arts, the Muses ftrike the shell.

)

(c) Certes o'er (d) Rhedicyna's laurel'd mead, (For ever spread, ye laurels, green and new!) The brother-stars their gracious nurture shed, And secret blessings of poetic-dew:

(a) Leda's twins] Castor and Pollux. (b) The Gemini are supposed to preside over learned men. See Pontanus in his beautiful poem called Urania. lib. ii. de Geminis. (c) Certes] Surely, certainly. (d) Rhedicyna] Oxford.

They bathe their horses in the learned flood,
With flame recruited for th'etherial road;
And deem (e) fair Ifis' fwans fair as their father-god.

No sooner April, trim'd with girlands gay,
Rains fragrance o'er the world, and kindly showers;
But, in the eastern-pride of beauty, May,
To gladden earth, forsakes her heavenly bowers,
Restoring Nature from her palfied state.
April, retire; (f) ne longer, Nature, wait:
Soon may she issue from the morning's golden gate.

Come, bounteous May! in fulness of thy might,
Lead briskly on the mirth-infusing hours,
All-recent from the bofom of delight,
With nectar nurtur'd, and involv'd in flowers :
By Spring's sweet blush, by Nature's teeming womb;
By Hebe's dimply smile, by Flora's bloom ;
By Venus-felf (for Venus-felf demands thee) come!

By the warm fighs, in dewy even-tide,
Of melting maidens, in the wood-bine-groves,
To pity loosen'd, soften'd down from pride;
By billing turtles, and by cooing doves;

(e) Fair as their father god] Jupiter deceived Leda in the shape of a swan as the was bathing herfelf in the river Eurotas. (f) Ne] Nor.

B 2

Ву

By the youths' plainings stealing on the air, (For youths will plain, tho' yielding be the fair) Hither, to bless the maidens and the youths, repair.

With dew bespangled, by the hawthorn-buds,
With freshness breathing, by the daified plains;
By the mix'd music of the warbling woods,
And jovial roundelays of nymphs and swains;
In thy full energy, and rich array,
Delight of earth and heaven! O blessed May!
From heaven descend to earth : on earth vouchsafe

to stay.

She comes ! - A filken (g) camus, emrald-green, Gracefully loose, adown her shoulders flows, (Fit to enfold the limbs of Paphos' queen) And with the labours of the needle glows, (h) Purfled by Nature's hand! the amorous air And musky-western breezes faft repair, Her mantle proud to swell, and wanton with her hair:

Her hair (but rather threads of light it seems:) With the gay honours of the Spring entwin'd, Copious, unbound, in nectar'd ringlets streams, Floats glittering on the sun, and scents the wind

!g) Camus] A light gown. with a necdle,

(h) Purfied] Flourished

Lovefick