BY WILLIAM THOMPSON, M. A.
Late Fellow of Queen's College, Oxon.
Subject proposed. Invocation of May.
Description of her: Her operations on nature. Bounty recommended; in particular at this season. Vernal apostrophe. Love the ruling passion in May. The celebration of Venus her Birth-Day in this month. Rural retirement in Spring. Conclusion.
ETHERIAL daughter of the lusty Spring,
And sweet Favonius, ever-gentle May !
Shall I, unblam'd, presume of thee to sing,
And with thy living colors gild my lay?
Thy genial spirit mantles in my brain;
My numbers languish in a softer vein:
I pant too emulous, to flow in Spenser's strain.
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 solid mountains to their base:
Say, what refulgent chambers of the sky
Veil thy beloved glories from the eye,
For which the nations pine, and earth's fair children
Where Leda's twins, forth from their diamond
Alternate, o'er the night their beams divide,
In light embosom'd, happy and secure
From winter-rage, thou chusest to abide;
Blest residence for there, as poets tell,
The powers of Poetry and Wisdom dwell; 20
Apollo wakes the Arts, the Muses strike the shell.
Certes o'er 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:
They bathe their horses in the learned flood,
With flame recruited for th' etherial road;
And deem fair Isis' swans fair as their father-god.
No sooner April, trim'd with girlands gay,
Rains fragrance o'er the world, and kindly showers; 34
But, in the eastern-pride of beauty, May,
To gladden earth, forsakes her heavenly bowers,
Restoring Nature from her palsied state.
April, retire; 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 bosom of delight,
With nectar nurtur'd, and involv'd in flowers:
By Spring's sweet blush, by Nature's teeming womb; 40
By Hebe's dimply smile, by Flora's bloom;
By Venus-self (for Venus-self demands thee) come !
By the warm sighs, 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;
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 daisied 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
She comes!—A silken camus, emral'd-green,
Gracefully loose, adown her shoulders flows,
(Fit to enfold the limbs of Paphos' queen)
And with the labors of the needle glows,
Purfled by Nature's hand! the amorous air
And musky-western breezes fast repair,
Her mantle proud to swell, and wanton with her hair:
Her hair (but rather threads of light it seems)
With the gay honors of the Spring entwin'd,
Copious, unbound, in nectar'd ringlets streams,
Floats glittering on the sun, and scents the wind
Lovesick with odors !-now to order roll'd,
It melts upon her bosom's dainty mold,
Or, curling round her waist, disparts 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 seas illumes, the earth and skies,
And open, where she smiles, the sweets of Paradise.
On Zephyr's wing the laughing Goddess view
Distilling balm: she cleaves the buxom air,
Attended by the silver-footed dew,
The ravages of winter to repair :
She gives her naked bosom to the gales,
Her naked bosom down the ether sails;
Her bosom breathes delight; her breath the spring exhales.
All as the Phoenix, in Arabian skies,
New-burnish'd from his spicy funeral pyres,
At large, in roseal undulation, flies;
His plumage dazzles, and the gazer tires :
Around their King the plumy nations wait,
Attend his triumph, and augment his state :
He towering claps his wings, and wins th' etherial
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 praises glad the isles:
Conscious of her approach (to deck her bowers)
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