| IF aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song, | |
| May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear, | |
| Like thy own solemn springs, | |
| Thy springs and dying gales; | |
| |
| O nymph reserved, while now the bright-hair'd sun | 5 |
| Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts, | |
| With brede ethereal wove, | |
| O'erhang his wavy bed: | |
| |
| Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat | |
| With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing, | 10 |
| Or where the beetle winds | |
| His small but sullen horn, | |
| |
| As oft he rises, 'midst the twilight path | |
| Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum: | |
| Now teach me, maid composed, | 15 |
| To breathe some soften'd strain, | |
| |
| Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale, | |
| May not unseemly with its stillness suit, | |
| As musing slow, I hail | |
| Thy genial loved return! | 20 |
| |
| For when thy folding-star arising shows | |
| His paly circlet, at his warning lamp | |
| The fragrant hours, and elves | |
| Who slept in buds the day, | |
| |
| And many a nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge, | 25 |
| And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still, | |
| The pensive pleasures sweet, | |
| Prepare thy shadowy car: | |
| |
| Then lead, calm votaress, where some sheety lake | |
| Cheers the lone heath, or some time-hallow'd pile, | 30 |
| Or upland fallows grey | |
| Reflect its last cool gleam. | |
| |
| Or if chill blustering winds, or driving rain, | |
| Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut | |
| That from the mountain's side | 35 |
| Views wilds and swelling floods, | |
| |
| And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires, | |
| And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all | |
| Thy dewy fingers draw | |
| The gradual dusky veil. | 40 |
| |
| While Spring shall pour his show'rs, as oft he wont, | |
| And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve! | |
| While Summer loves to sport | |
| Beneath thy lingering light; | |
| |
| While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves, | 45 |
| Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air, | |
| Affrights thy shrinking train, | |
| And rudely rends thy robes: | |
| |
| So long, regardful of thy quiet rule, | |
| Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rose-lipp'd Health | 50 |
| Thy gentlest influence own, | |
| And hymn thy favourite name! | |
