  She finds the boy she went to find;
  A thousand pleasures wait behind,
  Aside a thousand arrows lie,
  But all, unfeather'd, wait to fly.

   When they met, the dame and boy,
  Dancing graces, idle joy,                                   20
  Wanton smiles, and airy play,
  Conspired to make the scene be gay;
  Love pair'd the birds through all the grove,
  And Nature bid them sing to Love,
  Sitting, hopping, fluttering sing,
  And pay their tribute from the wing,
  To fledge the shafts that idly lie,
  And, yet unfeather'd, wait to fly.

   'Tis thus, when Spring renews the blood,
  They meet in every trembling wood,                          30
  And thrice they make the plumes agree,
  And every dart they mount with three,
  And every dart can boast a kind,
  Which suits each proper turn of mind.

   From the towering eagle's plume
  The generous hearts accept their doom;
  Shot by the peacock's painted eye
  The vain and airy lovers die:
  For careful dames and frugal men,
  The shafts are speckled by the hen:                         40
  The pies and parrots deck the darts,
  When prattling wins the panting hearts:
  When from the voice the passions spring,
  The warbling finch affords a wing:
  Together, by the sparrow stung,
  Down fall the wanton and the young:
  And fledged by geese the weapons fly,
  When others love they know not why.

  All this (as late I chanced to rove)
  I learn'd in yonder waving grove.                           50
  And see, says Love, who call'd me near,
  How much I deal with Nature here;
  How both support a proper part,
  She gives the feather, I the dart:
  Then cease for souls averse to sigh,
  If Nature cross ye, so do I;
  My weapon there unfeather'd flies,
  And shakes and shuffles through the skies.
  But if the mutual charms I find
  By which she links you, mind to mind,                       60
  They wing my shafts, I poise the darts,
  And strike from both, through both your hearts.

       *       *       *       *       *


  ANACREONTIC.

  1 Gay Bacchus liki