Page:Pastorals Epistles Odes (1748).djvu/30

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PASTORALS.
The damp, cold greensward, for my nightly bed,And some flaunt willow's trunk to rest my head.Hard is to bear of pinching cold the pain;And hard is want to the unpracticed swain: 96But neither want, nor pinching cold, is hard,To blasting storms of calumny compar'd:Unkind as hail it falls; the pelting showerDestroys the tender herb, and budding flower. 100
THENOT.Slander we shepherds count the vilest wrong:And what wounds sorer than an evil tongue?
COLINET.Untoward lads, the wanton imps of spite,Make mock of all the ditties I endite, 104In vain, O Colinet, thy pipe, so thrill,Charms every vale, and gladdens every hill:In vain thou seek'st the coverings of the grove, In the cool shade to sing the pains of love: 108Sing what thou wilt, ill-nature will prevail;And every elf hath skill enough to rail:But yet, though poor and artless be my vein, Menalcas seems to like my simple strain: 112And, while that He delighteth in my song,Which to the good Menalcas doth belong,

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