Oft have I read that Innocence retreats <br />Where cooling streams salute ye summer Seats <br />Singing at ease she roves ye field of flowrs <br />Or safe with shepheards lys among the bowrs <br />But late alas I crossd a country fare <br />And found No Strephon nor Dorinda there <br />There Hodge & William Joynd to cully ned <br />While Ned was drinking Hodge & William dead <br />There Cicely Jeard by day the slips of Nell <br />& ere ye night was ended Cicely fell <br />Are these the Virtues which adorn the plain <br />Ye bards forsake your old Arcadian Vein <br />To sheep those tender Innocents resign <br />The place where swains & nymphs are said to shine <br />Swains twice as Wicked Nymphs but half as sage <br />Tis sheep alone retrieve ye golden age.<br /><br />Thomas Parnell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/oft-have-i-read-that-innocence-retreats/
