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ECLOGUE ON ELIZABETH BELSHAM by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD

Poet Analysis

First Line: TIS BETSY! THE JOY OF THE PLAIN
Last Line: WITH BETSY THE JOY OF THE PLAIN.
Subject(s): LOVE - EROTIC; SHEPHERDS & SHEPHERDESSES; BEAUTY;

A

Tis Betsy! the joy of the plain;
Shepherds, stand not thus idly to gaze;
Lay your lips to the pipe or the flute,
Tune the best of your songs to her praise.

B

To Betsy, the joy of the plain,
Our songs should with pleasure be shewn,
But who, that has heard the sweet maid
Will venture a note of his own?

A

Leave loitering ye Nymphs in the shade,
And train up your gay summer bowers!
Full handfuls of roses we'll bring,
We'll dress her all over with flowers!

C

Stern Winter will ravage the mead,
And these bowers shall be pleasant no more,
The roses oer-blown must soon fall,
And no season their sweetness restore,

But the sunshine that laughs on her brow
Unclouded shall ever remain;
Ease, Wit, and the Graces reside,
With Betsy the joy of the plain.



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