Page:Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages.djvu/38

 "Grant me to feed on beauty's rifled charms, "And clasp a willing damsel in my arms; "Her bosom fairer than a hill of snow, "And gently bounding like a playful roe; "Her lips more fragrant than the summer air "And sweet as Scythian musk her hyacinthine hair; "Let new delights each dancing hour employ, "Sport follow sport, and joy succeed to joy."


 * The goddess grants the simple youth's request,

And mildly thus accosts her lovely guest: "On that smooth mirror, full of magick lights "Awhile, dear Maia, fix thy wandering sight" She looks; and in th' enchanted crystal sees A bower o'er-canopied with tufted trees: The wanton stripling lies beneath the shade, And by his side reclines a blooming maid; O'er her fair limbs a silken mantle flows, Through which her youthful beauty softly glows, And part conceal'd and part disclos'd to fight, Through the thin texture casts a ruddy light, As the ripe clusters of the mantling vine Beneath the verdant foliage faintly shine,