ABSTRACT
I Ceres, Great Goddess of the Bounteous Year, Who load’st the Teeming Earth with Gold and Grain, Blessing the Labours of th’ Industrious Swain, And to their Plaints inclin’st thy gracious Ear: 5 Behold two fair Cicilian Lovers lie Prostrate before thy Deity; Imploring thou wilt grant the Just Desires Of two Chaste Hearts that burn with equal Fires. II Amyntas he, brave, generous and young; 10 Whom yet no Vice his Youth has e’er betray’d: And Chaste Urania is the Lovely Maid; His Daughter who has serv’d thy Altars long, As thy High Priest: A Dowry he demands At the young Amorous Shepherds hands: 15 Say, gentle Goddess, what the Youth must give. E’er the Bright Maid he can from thee receive.
