Sabrina Fair - John Milton

Sabrina Fair

Sweet Echo, sweetest Nymph that livst unseen

Within thy airy shell

By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet imbroider'd vale

Where the love-lorn Nightingale

Nightly to thee her sad Song mourneth well.

Canst thou not tell me of a gentle Pair

That likest thy Narcissus are?

O if thou have

Hid them in som flowry Cave,

Tell me but where

Sweet Queen of Parly, Daughter of the Sphear,

So maist thou be translated to the skies,

And give resounding grace to all Heavns Harmonies

Sabrina fair

Listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave,

In twisted braids of Lillies knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair,

Listen for dear honour's sake,

Goddess of the silver lake,

Listen and save.

Listen and appear to us

In name of great Oceanus,

By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,

And Tethys grave majestick pace,

By hoary Nereus wrincled look,

And the Carpathian wisards hook,

By scaly Tritons winding shell,

And old sooth-saying Glaucus spell,

By Leucothea's lovely hands,

And her son that rules the strands,

By Thetis tinsel-slipper'd feet,

And the Songs of Sirens sweet,

By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,

And fair Ligea's golden comb,

Wherwith she sits on diamond rocks

Sleeking her soft alluring locks,

By all the Nymphs that nightly dance

Upon thy streams with wily glance,

Rise, rise, and heave thy rosie head

From thy coral-pav'n bed,

And bridle in thy headlong wave,

Till thou our summons answered have.

Listen and save.

Sabrina rises, attended by water-Nymphes, and sings.

By the rushy-fringed bank,

Where grows the Willow and the Osier dank,

My sliding Chariot stayes,

Thick set with Agat, and the azurn sheen

Of Turkis blew, and Emrauld green

That in the channell strayes,

Whilst from off the waters fleet

Thus I set my printless feet

O're the Cowslips Velvet head,

That bends not as I tread,

Gentle swain at thy request

I am here.

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