:Oh, fairest child! sweet summer visitor! :Thy looks cheer me, so shall they cheer this land :Which I will fly, thou gone. Nor seed of grass, :Or corn shall grow, thou absent from the earth; :But all shall lie beneath in hateful night :Until at thy return, the fresh green springs, :The fields are covered o'er with summer plants. :And when thou goest the heavy grain will droop :And die under my frown, scattering the seeds, :That will not reappear till your return. :Farewel, sweet child, Queen of the nether world, :There shine as chaste Diana's silver car :Islanded in the deep circumfluous night. :Giver of fruits! for such thou shalt be styled, :Sweet Prophetess of Summer, coming forth :From the slant shadow of the wintry earth, :In thy car drawn by snowy-breasted swallows! :Another kiss, & then again farewel! :Winter in losing thee has lost its all, :And will be doubly bare, & hoar, & drear, :Its bleak winds whistling o'er the cold pinched ground :Which neither flower or grass will decorate. :And as my tears fall first, so shall the trees :Shed their changed leaves upon your six months tomb: :The clouded air will hide from Phoebus' eye :The dreadful change your absence operates. :Thus has black Pluto changed the reign of Jove, :He seizes half the Earth when he takes thee.

Ceres Monologue from Proserpine

Rehearse Ceres's monologue