A Hymn to BacchusIvy-crown’d Bacchus iterate in thy praises,O Muse; whose voice all loftiest echoes raises,And he with all th’ illustrious Seed of JoveIs join’d in honour, being the fruit of loveTo him, and Semele the-great-in-graces;And from the King his father’s kind embracesBy fair-hair’d Nymphs was taken to the dalesOf Nyssa, and with curious festivalsGiven his fair grought, far from his father’s view,In caves from whence eternal odours flew,And in high number of the Deities plac’d.Yet when the many-hymn-given God had pastHis Nurses’ cares, in ivies and in baysAll over thicketed, his varied waysTo sylvan coverts evermore He took,With all his Nurses, whose shrill voices shookThickets, in which could no foot’s entry fall,And he himself made captain of them all.And so, O grape-abounding Bacchus, beEver saluted by my Muse and me!Give us to spend with spirit our hours out here,And every hour extend to many a year.
Ivy-crown’d Bacchus iterate in thy praises,O Muse; whose voice all loftiest echoes raises,And he with all th’ illustrious Seed of JoveIs join’d in honour, being the fruit of loveTo him, and Semele the-great-in-graces;And from the King his father’s kind embracesBy fair-hair’d Nymphs was taken to the dalesOf Nyssa, and with curious festivalsGiven his fair grought, far from his father’s view,In caves from whence eternal odours flew,And in high number of the Deities plac’d.Yet when the many-hymn-given God had pastHis Nurses’ cares, in ivies and in baysAll over thicketed, his varied waysTo sylvan coverts evermore He took,With all his Nurses, whose shrill voices shookThickets, in which could no foot’s entry fall,And he himself made captain of them all.And so, O grape-abounding Bacchus, beEver saluted by my Muse and me!Give us to spend with spirit our hours out here,And every hour extend to many a year.