THRICE, oh, thrice happy shepherd's life and state, When courts are happiness' unhappy pawns!
His cottage low, and safely humble gate
Shuts out proud Fortune, with her scorns and fawns. No feared treason breaks his quiet sleep:
Singing all day, his flocks he learns to keep; Himself as innocent as are his simple sheep.
No Serian worms he knows, that with their thread
Draw out their silken lives; nor silken pride :
His lambs' warm fleece well fits his little need,
Not in that proud Sidonian tincture dyed:
No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright,
Nor begging wants his middle fortune bite;
But sweet content exiles both misery and spite.
Instead of music and base flattering tongues,
Which wait to first salute my lord's uprise;
The cheerful lark wakes him with early songs,
And birds' sweet whistling notes unlock his eyes:
In country plays is all the strife he uses,
Or sing or dance unto the rural Muses;
And, but in music's sports, all difference refuses.
His certain life, that never can deceive him,
Is full of thousand sweets and rich content :
The smooth-leaved beeches in the field receive him
With coolest shades, till noontide's rage is spent:
His life is neither tost in boist❜rous seas
Of troublous world, nor lost in slothful ease;
Pleased and full bless'd he lives, when he his God can please.
His bed of wool yields safe and quiet sleeps,
While by his side his faithful spouse hath place:
His little son into his bosom creeps,
The lively picture of his father's face :
Never his humble house or state torment him;
Less he could like, if less his God had sent him ;
And when he dies, green turfs with grassy tomb content him.
FROM THE "FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS."
HEPHERDS all, and maidens fair,
Fold your flocks up, for the air
'Gins to thicken, and the sun
Already his great course hath run.
See the dew-drops, how they kiss
Every little flower that is
Hanging on their velvet heads,
Like a rope of crystal beads;
See the heavy clouds low falling,
And bright Hesperus down calling
The dead night from underground;
At whose rising, mists unsound,
Damps and vapours fly apace,
Hovering o'er the wanton face
Of those pastures where they come,
Striking dead both bud and bloom.
Therefore, from such danger lock
Every one his loved flock;
And let your dogs lie loose without,
Lest the wolf come as a scout
From the mountain, and, ere day,
Bear a lamb or kid away;
Or the crafty, thievish foe
Break upon your simple flocks.
To secure yourself from these,
Be not too secure in ease;
Let one eye his watches keep,
While the other eye doth sleep;
So
you shall good shepherds prove,
And for ever hold the love
Of our great God. Sweetest slumbers,
And soft silence, fall in numbers
On your eyelids! so farewell!
Thus I end my evening knell !
that know, ye who have felt and seen Spring's morning smiles, and soul-enlivening green,Say, did you give the thrilling transport way?
Did your eye brighten, when young lambs, at play,
Leap'd o'er your path with animated pride,
Or gazed in merry clusters by your side?
Ye who can smile, to wisdom no disgrace,
At the arch meaning of a kitten's face,
If spotless innocence and infant mirth
Excite to praise, or give reflection birth,
In shades like these pursue your favourite joy
'Midst nature's revel, sports that never cloy.-
A few begin a short but vigorous race,
And indolence, abash'd, soon flies the place:
Thus challenged forth, see thither, one by one,
From every side assembling playmates run;.
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