| |
| ASK not the cause why sullen Spring | |
| So long delays her flowers to bear; | |
| Why warbling birds forget to sing, | |
| And winter storms invert the year: | |
| Chloris is gone; and fate provides | 5 |
| To make it Spring where she resides. | |
| |
| Chloris is gone, the cruel fair; | |
| She cast not back a pitying eye: | |
| But left her lover in despair | |
| To sigh, to languish, and to die: | 10 |
| Ah! how can those fair eyes endure | |
| To give the wounds they will not cure? | |
| |
| Great God of Love, why hast thou made | |
| A face that can all hearts command, | |
| That all religions can invade, | 15 |
| And change the laws of every land? | |
| Where thou hadst placed such power before, | |
| Thou shouldst have made her mercy more. | |
| |
| When Chloris to the temple comes, | |
| Adoring crowds before her fall; | 20 |
| She can restore the dead from tombs | |
| And every life but mine recall. | |
| I only am by Love design’d | |
| To be the victim for mankind. | |
| |
