Who can live in heart so glad <br /> As the merry country lad? <br /> Who upon a fair green balk <br /> May at pleasure sit and walk, <br /> And amid the azure skies <br /> See the morning sun arise; <br /> While he hears in every spring <br /> How the birds do chirp and sing; <br /> Or before the hounds in cry <br /> See the hare go stealing by; <br /> Or along the shallow brook <br /> Angling with a baited hook, <br /> See the fishes leap and play <br /> In a blessed sunny day; <br /> Or to hear the partridge call <br /> Till she have her covey all; <br /> Or to see the subtle fox, <br /> How the villain plies the box, <br /> After feeding on his prey <br /> How he closely sneaks away <br /> Through the hedge and down the furrow, <br /> Till he gets into his burrow; <br /> Then the bee to gather honey, <br /> And the little black hair'd coney <br /> On a bank for sunny place <br /> With her forefeet wash her face: <br /> Are not these, with thousands moe <br /> Than the courts of kings do know, <br /> The true pleasing-spirits sights <br /> That may breed true love's delights?<br /><br />Nicholas Brenton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-passionate-shepherd-excerpt/
