Hail, MAY! lovely MAY! how replenish'd my pails! <br />The young Dawn overspreads the East streak'd with gold! <br />My glad heart beats time to the laugh of the Vales, <br />And COLIN'S voice rings through the woods from the fold. <br /> <br />The Wood to the Mountain submissively bends, <br />Whose blue misty summits first glow with the sun! <br />See thence a gay train by the wild rill descends <br />To join the glad sports:... hark! the tumult's begun. <br /> <br />Be cloudless, ye skies!... Be my Colin but there, <br />Not the dew-spangled bents on the wide level Dale, <br />Nor Morning's first blush can more lovely appear <br />Than his looks, since my wishes I could not conceal. <br /> <br />Swift down the mad dance, while blest health prompts to move, <br />We'll count joys to come, and exchange Vows of truth; <br />And haply when Age cools the transports of Love, <br />Decry, like good folks, the vain pleasures of youth. <br /> <br />No, no; the remembrance shall ever be dear! <br />At no time LOVE with INNOCENCE ceases to charm: <br />It is transport in Youth ... and it smiles through the tear, <br />When they feel, in their children, its first soft alarm.<br /><br />Robert Bloomfield<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-milk-maid-on-the-first-of-may/
