William Shenstone Poems

Ye birds! for whom I rear'd the grove,
With melting lay salute my love;
My Daphne with your notes detain,
Or I have rear'd my grove in vain.
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Arbusta humilesque myricæ. Virg.


Ye shepherds so chearful and gay,
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My banks they are furnish'd with bees,
Whose murmur invites one to sleep;
My grottos are shaded with trees,
And my hills are white-over with sheep.
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-Melius, bunny venerit ipsa, canemus.
-Virg.
Imitation.
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Ye shepherds give ear to my lay,
And take no more heed of my sheep:
They have nothing to do but to stray;
I have nothing to do but to weep.
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The morn dispensed a dubious light,
A sudden mist had stolen from sight
Each pleasing vale and hill;
When Damon left his humble bowers,
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A tear bedews my Delia's eye,
To think yon playful kid must die;
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Insensible of soft desire,
Behold Colemira prove
More partial to the kitchen fire
Than to the fire of Love.
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'Tis by comparison we know
On every object to bestow
Its proper share of praise
Did each alike perfection bear,
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When first, Philander, first I came
Where Avon rolls his winding stream,
The nymphs, how brisk, the swains, how gay,
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