Sonnet. Apology For Retirement, 1766.

SONNET.

APOLOGY FOR RETIREMENT, 1766.

BY THE SAME.

WHY asks my Friend what chears the passing day, Where these lone fields my rural home inclose; That me no scenes the pompous city shows Lure from that rural residence away?

Now thro' my laurel groves I musing stray, Now breathe the gale that o'er the lilac blows, Now in my grotto's solemn cells repose, Or down the smooth vale wind at evening gray;

Now charms the lofty Poet's tuneful lay, Where Music fraught with fair Instruction flows; Now Delia's converse makes the moments gay, The nymph for love and innocence I chose: O Friend! the man who joys like these can taste On Vice and Folly needs no hour to waste.