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.
...

-Melius, bunny venerit ipsa, canemus.
-Virg.
Imitation.
...

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.
...

Arbusta humilesque myricæ. Virg.


Ye shepherds so chearful and gay,
...

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.
...

The morn dispensed a dubious light,
A sudden mist had stolen from sight
Each pleasing vale and hill;
When Damon left his humble bowers,
...

Insensible of soft desire,
Behold Colemira prove
More partial to the kitchen fire
Than to the fire of Love.
...

'Tis by comparison we know
On every object to bestow
Its proper share of praise
Did each alike perfection bear,
...

When first, Philander, first I came
Where Avon rolls his winding stream,
The nymphs, how brisk, the swains, how gay,
...

O grief of griefs! that Envy's frantic ire
Should rob the living virtue of its praise;
O foolish Muses! that with zeal aspire
...