Wit & humour > Gentle shepherd

TO THE
Countess of EGLINTOUN,
With the following
PASTORAL.
ACCEPT, O Eglintoun! the rural lays.
That, bound to thee, thy duteous Poet pays.
The mufe, that oft has rais’d her tuneful {trains,
A frequent guefl: on Scotia’s blifsful plains.
That oft has fung, her lift’ning youth to move.
The charms of beauty, and the force of love.
Once more refumes the ftill fuccefsful lay.
Delighted, thro’ the verdant meads to ftray:
O! come, invok’d, and pleas’d, with her repair,
To breath the balmy fweets of purer air;
In the cool ev’ning negligently laid.
Or near the dream, or in the rural fliade.
Propitious hear, and, a? thou hear’ft approve
The Gentle Shepherd’s tender tale of love.
Learn from thele feenes what warm and glowing fires.
Inflame the breaft that real love infpires.
Delighted read of ardours, fighs, and tears;
All that a lover hopes, and all he fears:
Hence too, what paflions in his bofom rife.
What dawning gladnefs fparkles in his eyes.
When firft the fair one does hfx hate relent.
And blulhing beauteous fmiles the kind confent.
Love’s paflion here in each extreme is fhow’n,
In CHARLor’sfmile, or in Maria’s frown.
With words like thefe, that fail’d not to engage,
Lovccourted beauty in a golden age.
Pure and untaught, fuch nature firll infpir’d,
Ere yet the fair affedted phrafe defir’d.
His fecret thoughts were undifguis’d with art.
His words, ne’er knew to differ from his heart.
He