WRITTEN AT MINSTED IN THE NEW FOREST
O rising Sun! on this auspicious day
With brighter beams gild every hill and grove;
Ye feather'd songsters, breathe a sweeter lay!
And fill the echoing woods with joy and love.
And, honor'd Minsted, in thy green retreats
Let every tree a prouder foliage wear!
Let every floweret scatter livelier sweets,
And vernal perfumes scent the autumnal year!
Now has the Sun one annual circuit past,
Since in thy happy shades these longing arms
Receiv'd the choicest blessings man could taste,
Maria's virtues, and Maria's charms!
Yet witness every lawn, and every shade!
So dear a bliss my bosom could not know,
When to my breast I clasp'd the yielding maid,
As now her wedded fondness can bestow.
Let other youths, by vice or folly mov'd,
For each new object change their former flame;
And blush to own they love what once they lov'd,
Lest virtue should approve, and idiots blame.
The scorn of fools I ever shall despise;
For ever pleas'd, when by my constant side
Maria's beauty meets the public eyes,
At home my pleasure, and abroad my pride.
Where gold, not fondness, guards the nuptial chain,
Weak is the parent's will, the lawyer's art:
Blaspheming priests those hearts would join in vain,
Whom GOD and GOD's vicegerent, Nature, part.
But, oh! may we, whose hearts affection join'd,
Preserve the blessing till the close of life!
She in the husband still the lover find;
I still enjoy the mistress in the wife.