1. A youth allured by the zephyr's blandishment
With mantle hitched and finely tapered tent,

2. O'ercomes the censurers, o'erbears dissent,
Till ravished by excess of sentiment.

3. A fawn, whose streaming eye with liquid gleams-
Young friends around him and light-hearted girls-

4. His transports stir the luxe and rustling meres
And pastures fresh, close-planted and fern-fringed.

5. Health breathes in every breeze, gently winnowed;
Whatsoever way one turns, a gladdening sight;

6. A tapestry outspread, the sward besprent;
For him the thorn trees don their brightest white

7. And softened brooks glide on without relent.
Winds polished bright his smooth bay's flank and back;

8. Its welkin whales that crisply dip and roll;
Its waves are tempered, delicate and clear,

9. As though the pleasaunce, loth to stint their cheer,
Spared nothing to console their weary soul.

10. Herons like charging knights amid them strew
Their plumage; and the ringdoves o'er them flaunt;

11. Were linked corslets when the tourney drew;
Eyes in whose mirrors limpid lakelets dance;

12. Though tempests buffet them they never want.
Next, sugar canes that quivering zephyrs bow;

13. Like flutes and pipes the skilled performer knows
To sound, bound in a trance the bird flocks now;

14. Shaped like a sickle moon that light o'erflows,
Gentle or rude at will the breeze that blows.

15. Now swaying, now withdrawn, conjoined, disjoined,
We piece together fragments sweet though slight,

16. As daggers keen and finely tapered point.
"God's peace permitting such delights as these!"

17. The ringdoves chant in modulated phrase,
While undiverted from their skimming ways