So dear my Lucio is to me, <br />So well our minds and tempers blend, <br />That seasons may for ever flee, <br />And ne'er divide me from my friend; <br />But let the favour'd boy forbear <br />To tempt with love my only fair. <br /> <br />O Lycon! born when every Muse, <br />When every Grace, benignant smiled, <br />With all a parent's breast could choose <br />To bless her loved, her only child; <br />'Tis thine, so richly graced, to prove <br />More noble cares than cares of love. <br /> <br />Together we from early youth <br />Have trod the flowery tracks of time, <br />Together mused in search of truth, <br />O'er learned sage, or bard sublime; <br />And well thy cultured breast I know, <br />What wondrous treasure it can show! <br /> <br />Come, then, resume thy charming lyre, <br />And sing some patriot's worth sublime, <br />Whilst I in fields of soft desire <br />Consume my fair and fruitless prime; <br />Whose reed aspires but to display <br />The flame that burns me night and day. <br /> <br />O come! the Dryads of the woods <br />Shall daily soothe thy studious mind, <br />The blue-eyed nymphs of yonder floods <br />Shall meet and court thee to be kind; <br />And Fame sits listening for thy lays <br />To swell her trump with Lucio's praise. <br /> <br />Like me, the plover fondly tries <br />To lure the sportsman from her nest, <br />And fluttering on with anxious cries, <br />Too plainly shows her tortured breast; <br />O let him, conscious of her care, <br />Pity her pains, and learn to spare.<br /><br />William Shenstone<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-so-dear-my-lucio-is-to-me/
