A Song from Shakespeare's Cymbeline
A Song from Shakespeare's Cymbeline
Original Text
William Collins, An Epistle: Address to Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744).
1 To fair Fidele's grassy tomb
2 Soft maids and village hinds shall bring
3Each op'ning sweet, of earliest bloom,
4 And rifle all the breathing spring.
5 No wailing ghost shall dare appear,
6 To vex with shrieks this quiet grove:
7But shepherd lads assemble here,
8 And melting virgins own their love.
9 No wither'd witch shall here be seen,
10 No goblins lead their nightly crew:
11The female fays shall haunt the green,
12 And dress thy grave with pearly dew!
13 The redbreast oft at ev'ning hours
14 Shall kindly lend his little aid:
15With hoary moss, and gather'd flow'rs,
16 To deck the ground where thou art laid.
17 When howling winds, and beating rain,
18 In tempests shake the sylvan cell,
19Or midst the chase on ev'ry plain,
20 The tender thought on thee shall dwell.
21 Each lonely scene shall thee restore,
22 For thee the tear be duly shed:
23Belov'd, till life could charm no more;
24 And mourn'd, till Pity's self be dead.
Publication Start Year
1744
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
2RP 2.691.
Rhyme
Form