On FLORINDA, Seen while she was Bathing.

  Twas summer, and the clear resplendent moon
    Shedding far o’er the plains her full-orb’d light,
  Among the lesser stars distinctly shone,
    Despoiling of its gloom the scanty night,
  When, walking forth, a lonely path I took
  Nigh the fair border of a purling brook.

  Sweet and refreshing was the midnight air,
    Whose gentle motions hush’d the silent grove;
  Silent, unless when prick’d with wakeful care
    Philomel warbled out her tale of love: 
  While blooming flowers, which in the meadows grew,
  O’er all the place their blended odours threw.

  Just by, the limpid river’s crystal wave,
    Its eddies gilt with Phoebe’s silver ray,
  Still as it flow’d a glittering lustre gave
    With glancing gleams that emulate the day;
  Yet oh! not half so bright as those that rise
  Where young Florinda bends her smiling eyes.

  Whatever pleasing views my senses meet,
    Her intermingled charms improve the theme;
  The warbling birds, the flow’rs that breath so sweet,
    And the soft surface of the dimpled stream,
  Resembling in the nymph some lovely part,
  With pleasures more exalted seize my heart.

  Rapt in these thoughts I negligently rov’d,
    Imagin’d transports all my soul employ,
  When the delightful voice of her I lov’d
    Sent thro’ the Shades a sound of real joy. 
  Confus’d it came, with giggling laughter mixt,
  And echo from the banks reply’d betwixt.

  Inspir’d with hope, upborn with light desire,
    To the dear place my ready footsteps tend. 
  Quick, as when kindling trails of active fire
    Up to their native firmament ascend: 
  There shrouded in the briers unseen I stood,
  And thro’ the leaves survey’d the neighb’ring flood.

  Florinda, with two sister nymphs, undrest,
    Within the channel of the cooly tide,
  By bathing sought to sooth her virgin breast,
    Nor could the night her dazzling beauties hide;
  Her features, glowing with eternal bloom,
  Darted, like Hesper, thro’ the dusky gloom.

  Her hair bound backward in a spiral wreath
    Her upper beauties to my sight betray’d;
  The happy stream concealing those beneath,
    Around her waste with circling waters play’d;
  Who, while the fair one on his bosom sported,
  Her dainty limbs with liquid kisses courted.

  A thousand Cupids with their infant arms
    Swam padling in the current here and there;
  Some, with smiles innocent, remarked the charms
    Of the regardless undesigning fair;
  Some, with their little Eben bows full-bended,
  And levell’d shafts, the naked girl defended.

  Her eyes, her lips, her breasts exactly round,
    Of lilly hue, unnumber’d arrows sent;
  Which to my heart an easy passage found,
    Thrill’d in my bones, and thro’ my marrow went: 
  Some bubbling upward thro’ the water came,
  Prepar’d by fancy to augment my flame.