Classic Poem

And now at length the joyful time drew on,
She meant to honour her Endymion,
And glorify him on that stately mount,
Whereof the Goddess made so great account.
She sends Jove's winged herald to the woods,
The neighbour fountains, and the bordering floods,
Charging the nymphs which did inhabit there,
Upon a day appointed to appear,
And to attend her sacred Majesty
In all their pomp and great solemnity,
Having obtained great Phoebus' free consent
To further her divine and chaste intent;
Which thus imposed as a thing of weight,
In stately troops appear before her straight,
The Fawns and Satyrs from the tufted brakes,
Their bristly arms wreath'd all about with snakes;
Their sturdy loins with ropes of ivy bound,
Their horned heads with woodbine chaplets crown'd,
With cypress javelins, and about their thighs
The flaggy hair disorder'd loosely flies:
Th' Oriades, like to the Spartan maid,
In murrie-scyndall gorgeously arrayed:
With gallant green scarves girded in the waist,
Their flaxen hair with silken fillets lac'd,
Woven with flowers in sweet lascivious wreaths,
Moving like feathers as the light air breathes;
With crowns of myrtle, glorious to behold,
Whose leaves are painted with pure drops of gold:
With trains of fine bisse checker'd all with frets
Of dainty pinks and precious violets,
In branched buskins of fine cordiwin,
With spangled garters down unto the shin,
Fring'd with fine silk, of many a sundry kind,
Which like to pennons waved with the wind;
The Hamadriads from their shady bowers,
Deck'd up in garlands of the rarest flowers,
Upon the backs of milk-white bulls were set,
With horn and hoof, as black as any jet,
Whose collars were great massy golden rings,
Led by their swains in twisted silken strings;
Then did the lovely Driades appear,
On dappled stags, which bravely mounted were,
Whose velvet palms with nosegays rarely dight,
To all the rest bred wonderful delight;
And in this sort accompanied with these,
In triumph rid the wat'ry Niades,
Upon sea-horses trapt with shining fins,
Arm'd with their mail impenetrable skins,
Whose scaly crests like rain-bows bended high,
Seem to control proud Iris in the sky;
Upon a chariot was Endymion laid,
In snowy tissue gorgeously arrayed,
Of precious ivory cover'd o'er with lawn,
Which by four stately unicorns was drawn.
Of ropes of orient pearl their traces were,
Pure as the path which doth in heaven appear,
With rarest flowers enchas'd and over-spread,
Which serv'd as curtains to this glorious bed,
Whose seat of crystal in the sun-beams shone,
Like thunder-breathing Jove's celestial throne.
Upon his head a coronet install'd,
Of one entire and mighty emerald,
With richest bracelets on his lily wrists,
Of hellitropium link'd with golden twists;
A bevy of fair swans which flying over,
With their large wings him from the sun do cover,
And easily wafting as he went along,
Do lull him still with their enchanting song,
Whilst all the nymphs on solemn instruments,
Sound dainty music to their sweet laments.