Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Ben Jonson (15721637)The Shepherds Holiday (from Pans Anniversary)
[From Pan’s Anniversary; or, The Shepherds’ Holiday: 1625.]
First Nymph.
T
Are due to Pan on these bright nights;
His morn now riseth and invites
To sports, to dances, and delights:
All envious and profane, away!
This is the shepherds’ holiday.
Strew, strew the glad and smiling ground
With every flower, yet not confound;
The primrose drop, the spring’s own spouse,
Bright day’s-eyes, and the lips of cows,
The garden-star, the queen of May,
The rose, to crown the holiday.
Drop, drop you violets, change your hues
Now red, now pale, as lovers use,
And in your death go out as well,
As when you lived unto the smell:
That from your odour all may say,
This is the shepherds’ holiday.