Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/18

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The wanton fawns with frisking pleasure range,
And chirping sparrows greet the welcome change:
Not that their minds with greater skill are fraught,
Endu'd by instinct, or by reason taught;150
The seasons operate on ev'ry breast:—-
'T is hence that fawns are brisk, and ladies drest.
When on his box the nodding coachman snores,
And dreams of fancied fares; when tavern doors
The chairmen idly crowd; then ne'er refuse155
To trust thy busy steps in thinner shoes.
But when the swinging signs your ears offend
With creaking noise, then rainy floods impend:
Soon shall the kennels swell with rapid streams,
And rush in muddy torrents to the Thames.160
The bookseller, whose shop's an open square,
Foresees the tempest, and with early care
Of learning strips the rails: the rowing crew,
To tempt a fare, clothe all their tilts in blue.
On hosiers' poles depending stockings tied,165
Flag with the slacken'd gale from side to side.
Church monuments foretel the changing air;—
Then Niobe dissolves into a tear,