T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
In the Pleasant Month of May
Anonymous(From Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1707) IN the pleasant Month of May, | |
When the merry, merry Birds began to sing; | |
And the Blossoms fresh and gay; | |
Usher’d in the welcome Spring, | |
When the long cold Winter’s gone, | 5 |
And the bright enticing Moon, | |
In the Evening sweetly shone; | |
When the bonny Men and Maids tripped it on the Grass; | |
At a jolly Country Fair, | |
When the Nymphs in the best appear; | 10 |
We resolv’d to be free, with a Fiddle and a She, | |
Every Shepherd and his Lass. | |
In the middle of the Sport, | |
When the Fiddle went brisk and the Glass went round, | |
And the Pretty gay Nymphs for Court, | 15 |
With their Merry Feet beat the Ground; | |
Little Cupid armed unseen, | |
With a Bow and Dart stole in, | |
With a conquering Air and Mien, | |
And emptied his Bow thro’ the Nymphs and the Swains; | 20 |
Every Shepherd and his Mate, | |
Soon felt their pleasing Fate, | |
And longing to try in Enjoyment to die, | |
Love reigned o’er all the Plains. | |
Now the sighing Swain gave o’er, | 25 |
And the wearied Nymphs could dance no more, | |
There were other Thoughts that mov’d, | |
Ev’ry pretty kind Pair that Lov’d: | |
In the Woods the Shepherds lay, | |
And mourned the time away, | 30 |
And the Nymphs as well as they, | |
Longed to taste what it is that their Senses cloys, | |
Till at last by consent of Eyes, | |
Ev’ry Swain with his pretty Nymph flies, | |
Ev’ry Buxom She retires with her He, | 35 |
To act Love’s solid Joys. | |