How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
See how Aurora throws her fair
Fresh-quilted colours through the air:
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see
The dew bespangling herb and tree.
Each flower has wept and bow'd toward the east
Above an hour since: yet you not dress'd (3-8)
Not only is the natural world beautiful and awe-inspiring; it's also really good at getting work done. Corinna may be just as beautiful, but her laziness makes for a pitiful contrast.
Quote #2
Rise and put on your foliage, and be seen
To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green,
And sweet as Flora. […] (15-17)
Okay, she's not actually dressed in leaves and daisy chains. Her clothes are only called "foliage" because he wants her to embody the purity of nature. We're going for a simple Flora look this morning: pretty and fresh.
Quote #3
Take no care
For jewels for your gown or hair:
Fear not; the leaves will strew
Gems in abundance upon you: (17-20)
Since this holiday celebrates spring, the speaker tells Corinna to get her back-to-nature spa on. She should adorn herself as simply as possible, to imitate nature. No caked-on makeup or Bath & Body Works jasmine lotion for this holiday.
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.