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(Inscribed to the Right Honourable Catharine Countess of Thanet,
mentioned in the poem under the name of Arminda)
1Give me, O indulgent Fate!
2 Give me yet before I die
3 A sweet, but absolute retreat,
4 'Mongst paths so lost and trees so high
5 That the world may ne'er invade
6 Through such windings and such shade
7 My unshaken liberty.
8 No intruders thither
come
9 Who visit but to be from home!
10 None who their vain moments pass
11 Only studious of their glass;
12 News, that charm to list'ning ears,
13 That false alarm to hopes and fears,
14 That common theme for every fop,
15 From the statesman to the shop,
16 In those coverts ne'er be spread,
17 Of who's deceas'd, and who's to wed.
18 Be no tidings thither brought,
19 But silent as a midnight thought
20 Where the world may ne'er invade
21 Be those windings and that shade!
22 Courteous Fate! afford me there
23 A table spread, without my care,
24 With what the neighb'ring fields impart,
25 Whose cleanliness be all its art.
26 When of old the calf was drest
27 (Though to make an angel's feast)
28 In the plain unstudied sauce
29 Nor truffle nor morillia was;
30 Nor could the mighty patriarchs' board
31 One far-fetch'd ortolan afford.
32 Courteous Fate! then give me there
33 Only plain and wholesome fare;
34 Fruits indeed (would heaven bestow)
35 All that did in Eden grow,
36 All but the forbidden Tree
37 Would be coveted by me;
38 Grapes with juice so crowded up
39 As breaking through the native cup;
40 Figs yet growing candied o'er
41 By the sun's attracting power;
42 Cherries, with the downy peach,
43 All within my easy reach;
44 Whilst creeping near the humble ground
45 Should the strawberry be found
46 Springing wheresoe'er I stray'd
47 Through those windings and that shade.
48 For my garments: let them be
49 What may with the time agree;
50 Warm when Ph{oe}bus does retire
51 And is ill-supplied by fire:
52 But when he renews the year
53 And verdant all the fields appear,
54 Beauty every thing resumes,
55 Birds have dropp'd their winter plumes,
56 When the lily full-display'd
57 Stands in purer white array'd
58 Than that vest which heretofore
59 The luxurious monarch wore,
60 When from Salem's gates he drove
61 To the soft retreat of love,
62 Lebanon's all burnish'd house
63 And the dear Egyptian spouse.
64 Clothe me, Fate, though not so gay,
65 Clothe me light and fresh as May!
66 In the fountains let me view
67 All my habit cheap and new
68 Such as, when sweet zephyrs fly,
69 With their motions may comply,
70 Gently waving to express
71 Unaffected carelessness.
72 No perfumes have there a part
73 Borrow'd from the chemist's art,
74 But such as rise from flow'ry beds
75 Or the falling jasmine sheds!
76 'Twas the odour of the field
77 Esau's rural coat did yield
78 That inspir'd his father's prayer
79 For blessings of the earth and air:
80 Of gums or powders had it smelt,
81 The supplanter, then unfelt,
82 Easily had been descried
83 For one that did in tents abide,
84 For some beauteous handmaid's joy,
85 And his mother's darling boy.
86 Let me then no fragrance wear
87 But what the winds from gardens bear,
88 In such kind surprising gales
89 As gather'd from Fidentia's vales
90 All the flowers that in them grew;
91 Which intermixing as they flew
92 In wreathen garlands dropp'd again
93 On Lucullus and his men;
94 Who, cheer'd by the victorious sight,
95 Trebled numbers put to flight.
96 Let me, when I must be fine,
97 In such natural colours shine;
98 Wove and painted by the sun;
99 Whose resplendent rays to shun
100 When they do too fiercely beat
101 Let me find some close retreat
102 Where they have no passage made
103 Through those windings, and that shade.
....