Selections For Practice - Voice Charm

  _FROM MILTON'S "L'ALLEGRO"_

    Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee     Jest, and youthful Jollity,     Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles,     Nods and Becks, and wreathed Smiles,     Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,     And love to live in dimple sleek,--     Sport that wrinkled Care derides,     And Laughter holding both his sides.

    Come, and trip it as ye go     On the light fantastic toe;     And in thy right hand lead with thee     The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty:     And, if I give thee honor due,     Mirth, admit me of thy crew,     To live with her, and live with thee,     In unreproved pleasures free;

    To hear the lark begin his flight,     And singing, startle the dull Night     From his watch-tower in the skies,     Till the dappled Dawn doth rise;     Then to come in spite of sorrow,     And at my window bid good-morrow     Through the sweetbrier, or the vine,     Or the twisted eglantine;     While the cock with lively din     Scatters the rear of darkness thin,     And to the stack, or the barn-door,     Stoutly struts his dames before;

    Oft listening how the hounds and horn     Cheerly rouse the slumbering Morn,     From the side of some hoar hill,     Through the high wood echoing shrill;     Sometime walking, not unseen,     By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green,     Right against the eastern gate,     Where the great Sun begins his state,     Robed in flames and amber light,     The clouds in thousand liveries dight,     While the plowman near at hand     Whistles o'er the furrowed land,     And the milkmaid singing blithe,     And the mower whets his scythe,     And every shepherd tells his tale,     Under the hawthorn in the dale.

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