176 SELECT POETRY

THE CICADA! OR TREEHOPPER.
FROM THE GREEK OF ANACREON.

Happy insect! what can be

In happiness compared to thee ?
Fed with nourishment divine,

The dewy morning's gentle wine ;
Nature waits upon thee still,

And thy verdant cup does fill.

Thou dost drink, and dance, and sing
Happier than the happiest king !
All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants belong to thee,

All that summer hours produce,
Fertile made with early juice ;

Man for thee does sow and plough,
Farmer he, and landlord thou !
Thou dost innocently enjoy,

Nor does thy luxury destroy ;

Thee country hinds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripened year !

To thee, of all things upon earth,
Life is no longer than thy mirth,
Happy insect! happy thou

Dost neither age nor winter know ;*

1 The cicada is sometimes confounded with the grass-
hopper, to which family, however, it does not belong.

* The notion of the cicada's enjoying perpetual youth, it
is needless to say, is a mere fancy of the poet.—'The Greeks
seem to have manifested an extraordinary attachment to the
insect.