gay

High the screaming fife replies,

Gay the files of scarlet follow:

Woman bore me, I will rise.

Yet even this, for thee, I chose to bear:

In glowing youth, when nature bids be gay,

And every joy of life before me lay; 20

Exalt the dance, or animate the song;

There, youths and nymphs, in consort gay,

Shall hail the rising, close the parting day.

When offers are disdain'd, and love deny'd:

Then gay Ideas crowd the vacant brain,

While Peers, and Dukes, and all their sweeping train,

In these gay thoughts the Loves and Graces shine,

And all the writer lives in every line;

New graces yearly like thy works display,

Soft without weakness, without glaring gay;

Led by some rule, that guides, but not constrains;

Or sees the blush of soft Parthenia rise,

Gay pats my shoulder, and you vanish quite,

Streets, chairs, and coxcombs rush upon my sight;

John Gay, the idlest, best-natured, and best-loved man of letters of his

day, was the special friend of Pope. His early work, 'The Shepherd's