Page:Father's memoirs of his child.djvu/41

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xxvii

The Fairy Glee of Oberon, which Stevens's exquisite music has familiarised to modern ears, will immediately occur to the reader of these laughing stanzas. We may also trace another less obvious resemblance to Jonson, in an ode gratulatory to the Right Honourable Hierome, Lord Weston, for his return from his embassy, in the year 1632. The accord is to be found, not in the words nor in the subject; for either would betray imitation: but in the style of thought, and, if I may so term it, the date of the expression.

   Such pleasure as the teeming earth
   Doth take in easy nature's birth,
When she puts forth the life of every thing:
   And in a dew of sweetest rain,
   She lies delivered without pain,
Of the prime beauty of the year, the spring.

   The rivers in their shores do run,
   The clouds rack clear before the sun,
The rudest winds obey the calmest air: