How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
Come and receive them while the light
Hangs on the dew-locks of the night:
And Titan on the eastern hill
Retires himself, or else stands still
Till you come forth […] (23-27)
Not only does the earth save dewdrops for her pearls and basically become an open jewelry box for Corinna; it also promises more radical solutions if she still needs help with the snooze button. The night offers to stand still and not let dawn get any further until she's ready to get up. For a powerful dude like a Titan, that's a pretty big concession. And it's the first hint that for all its mythological personification, nature in this poem is ultimately controlled by humans.
Quote #5
and, coming, mark
How each field turns a street, each street a park
Made green and trimm'd with trees (29-31)
May Day celebrates the natural world, in all its untouched beauty, but like Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation, this village is all about civic improvement. Fields turn into streets, and the streets are beautified by parks, which are "made green and trimm'd with trees," a description that emphasizes the human work behind a lot of this beauty. Nature and humans: we're in it to win it.
Quote #6
As if here were those cooler shades of love.
Can such delights be in the street
And open fields and we not see't? (36-38)
Nature is also the place for lovemaking. Sure, Corinna's in bed and it sounds like the speaker was too, but this is a festival that celebrates physical love and it makes sense to get out among the birds and bees.