I + 

The evening comes, the fields are still. + 

The tinkle of the thirsty rill, + 

Unheard all day, ascends again; + 

Deserted is the new-reap’d grain, + 

Silent the sheaves! the ringing wain, + 

The reaper’s cry, the dogs’ alarms, + 

All housed within the sleeping farms! + 

The business of the day is done, + 

The last belated gleaner gone. + 

And from the thyme upon the height, + 

And from the elder-blossom white + 

And pale dog-roses in the hedge, + 

And from the mint-plant in the sedge, + 

In puffs of balm the night-air blows + 

The perfume which the day forgoes. + 

And on the pure horizon far, + 

See, pulsing with the first-born star, + 

The liquid sky above the hill! + 

The evening comes, the fields are still. + 

Loitering and leaping, + 

With saunter, with bounds⁠— + 

Flickering and circling + 

In files and in rounds⁠— + 

Gaily their pine-staff green + 

Tossing in air, + 

Loose o’er their shoulders white + 

Showering their hair⁠— + 

See! the wild Maenads + 

Break from the wood, + 

Youth and Iacchus + 

Maddening their blood! + 

See! through the quiet land + 

Rioting they pass⁠— + 

Fling the piled sheaves about, + 

Trample the grass! + 

Tear from the rifled hedge + 

Garlands, their prize; + 

Fill with their sports the field, + 

Fill with their cries! + 

Shepherd, what ails thee, then? + 

Shepherd, why mute? + 

Forth with thy joyous song! + 

Forth with thy flute! + 

Tempts not the revel blithe? + 

Lure not their cries? + 

Glow not their shoulders smooth? + 

Melt not their eyes? + 

Is not, on cheeks like those, + 

Lovely the flush?⁠— + 

Ah, so the quiet was! + 

So was the hush! + 