POETICAL CALENDAR.

ΑΝ HYMN ΤΟ MAY.

BY WILLIAM THOMPSON, M. A. LATE FELLOW OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXON.

Nunc formofiffimus annus.

VIRG.

ARGUMENT.

Subject propofed. Invocation of May. Defcription of her: Her operations on nature. Bounty recommended; in particular at this feafon. Vernal apoftrophe. Love the ruling paffion in May. The celebration of Venus her birth-day in this month. Rural retirement in Spring. Conclufion.

E

Therial daughter of the lufty Spring, And sweet Favonius, ever-gentle May! Shall I, unblam'd, prefume 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 fofter vein :

I pant, too emulous, to flow in Spenser's ftrain.

Say, mild Aurora of the blooming year,

With ftorms when winter blackens Nature's face;
When whirling winds the howling foreft 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 fecure
From winter-rage, thou chufeft to abide;
Bleft refidence! for there, as poets tell,

(b) The powers of Poetry and Wisdom dwell; Apollo wakes the Arts, the Muses strike 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 fecret bleffings of poetic-dew:

(a) Leda's twins] Caftor and Pollux.

(b) The Ge

mini are fuppofed to prefide 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 fooner 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, forfakes her heavenly bowers,
Reftoring Nature from her palfied state.

April, retire; (f) ne longer, Nature, wait:
Soon may fhe iffue from the morning's golden gate.

Come, bounteous May! in fulness of thy might,
Lead briskly on the mirth-infufing hours,
All-recent from the bofom of delight,

With nectar nurtur'd, and involv'd in flowers:
By Spring's fweet blush, by Nature's teeming wonb;
By Hebe's dimply fmile, 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, foften'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 she was bathing herself in the river Eurotas. (f) Ne] Nor.

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

With dew befpangled, by the hawthorn-buds,
With freshness breathing, by the daified plains;
By the mix'd mufic of the warbling woods,
And jovial roundelays of nymphs and swains;
In thy full energy, and rich array,

Delight of earth and heaven! O bleffed May! From heaven defcend to earth: on earth vouchsafe to ftay.

She comes! A filken (g) camus, emral'd-green, Gracefully loofe, adown her fhoulders 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 fast repair,

Her mantle proud to fwell, and wanton with her hair:

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

(g) Camus] A light gown. (h) Purfled] Flourished

with a needle,

Lovefick