The Coy One

The Coy One

ONE Spring-morning bright and fair,

Roam’d a shepherdess[28]and sang；

Young and beauteous,free from care,

Through the fields her clear notes rang：

So,Ia,Ia!le ralla,&c.

Of his lambs some two or three

Thyrsis offer’d for a kiss;

First she eyed him roguishly[29]，

Then for answer sang but this：

So,Ia,Ia!le ralla,&c.

Ribbons did the next one offer,

And the third,his heart so true

But,as with the lambs,the scoffer

Laugh’d at heart and ribbons too,—

Still’twas Ia!le ralla,&c.

1791.