Sonnet LI. To Sylvia On Her Approaching Nuptials.

Hope comes to Youth, gliding thro' azure skies         With amaranth crown: - her full robe, snowy white,         Floats on the gale, and our exulting sight         Marks it afar. - From waning Life she flies,      Wrapt in a mist, covering her starry eyes         With her fair hand. - But now, in floods of light,         She meets thee, SYLVIA, and with glances, bright         As lucid streams, when Spring's clear mornings rise.      From Hymen's kindling torch, a yellow ray         The shining texture of her spotless vest         Gilds; - and the Month that gives the early day      The scent od[=o]rous[1], and the carol blest,         Pride of the rising Year, enamour'd MAY,         Paints its redundant folds with florets gay.     1: Od[=o]rous. Milton, in the Par. Lost, gives the lengthened and harmonious accent to that word, rather than the short, and common one, [=o]dorous:          - - "the bright consummate flower      Spirit od[=o]rous breathes."