t gift remains.
Not the fair fruit that on yon branches glows 100
With that ripe red th' autumnal sun bestows;
Nor tasteful herbs that in these gardens rise,
Which the kind soil with milky sap supplies;
You, only you, can move the god's desire:
Oh crown so constant and so pure a fire! 105
Let soft compassion touch your gentle mind;
Think, 'tis Vertumnus begs you to be kind!
So may no frost, when early buds appear,
Destroy the promise of the youthful year;
Nor winds, when first your florid orchard blows, 110
Shake the light blossoms from their blasted boughs!
This, when the various god had urged in vain,
He straight assumed his native form again;
Such, and so bright an aspect now he bears,
As when through clouds th' emerging sun appears, 115
And thence exerting his refulgent ray,
Dispels the darkness and reveals the day.
Force he prepared, but checked the rash design;
For when, appearing in a form divine,
The nymph surveys him, and beholds the grace 120
Of charming features, and a youthful face,
In her soft breast consenting passions move,
And the warm maid confessed a mutual love.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: This fragment was first published in 1712, in Lintot's
Miscellany.]

[Footnote 2: The reign of Procas, one of the fabulous kings of Alba
Longa.]

[Footnote 3: Pope, in his youth, was not averse to affected phrases; but
it is surprising that he could bring himself to call a garden "the
vegetable care."]

[Footnote 4: "Sliding" is a very happy expression.--BOWLES.

Pope borrowed it from the corresponding passage of Sandys--"Soft-sliding
springs."]

[Footnote 5: Priapus.]

[Footnote 6: A broad band of cloth worn by women round the head.]

[Footnote 7: Sandys' Ovid, book ii.:

--his kisses too intemperate grow,
Not such as maids on maidens do bestow.]

[Footnote 8: Hippodameia. According to the fable, a Centaur carried her
off at her marriage feast. This occasioned the battle between the
Lapithae, over whom her husband ruled, and the Centaurs.]

JANUARY AND MAY:

OR,

THE MERCHANT'S TALE.

FROM CHAUCER.

This translation was done at sixteen or seventeen years of age.--POPE.

The story of January and May now before us is of the comic kind; and the
character of