26

And with your golden darts, now useless grown,
Inscribe a verse on this relenting stone :-
'Let nature change, let heaven and earth deplore;
Fair Daphne's dead, and love is now no more!'

35

'Tis done, and nature's various charms decay: See gloomy clouds obscure the cheerful day! 30 Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honors scatter'd on her bier. See, where on earth the flowery glories lie; With her they florish'd, and with her they die. Ah, what avail the beauties nature wore? Fair Daphne's dead, and beauty is no more! For her the flocks refuse their verdant food; The thirsty heifers shun the gliding flood; The silver swans her hapless fate bemoan, In notes more sad than when they sing their own: In hollow caves sweet Echo silent lies; Silent, or only to her name replies:

41

Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore :

46

50

Now Daphne's dead, and pleasure is no more!
No grateful dews descend from evening skies,
Nor morning odors from the flowers arise;
No rich perfumes refresh the fruitful field,
Nor fragrant herbs their native incense yield:
The balmy zephyrs, silent since her death,
Lament the ceasing of a sweeter breath;
The industrious bees neglect their golden store :
Fair Daphne's dead, and sweetness is no more!
No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings,
Shall listening in mid-air suspend their wings;
No more the birds shall imitate her lays;
Or, hush'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays:

55

60

No more the streams their murmurs shall forbear,
A sweeter music than their own to hear;
But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal shore,
Fair Daphne's dead, and music is no more!
Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze,
And told in sighs to all the trembling trees;
The trembling trees, in every plain and wood,
Her fate remurmur to the silver flood:
The silver flood, so lately calm, appears
Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with

tears:

65

The winds, and trees, and floods her death de

plore :

Daphne, our grief, our glory now no more!

But see, where Daphne wondering mounts on high

Above the clouds, above the starry sky!
Eternal beauties grace the shining scene;
Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green!
There, while you rest in amaranthine bowers,
Or from those meads select unfading flowers,
Behold us kindly, who your name implore;
Daphne, our goddess, and our grief no more!

LYCIDAS.

70

70

75

How all things listen while thy Muse complains!

Such silence waits on Philomela's strains,

69 But see, where Daphne. Thus Milton :-
:-

Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more—
Where other groves and other streams along,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
And hears the inexpressive nuptial song

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.-Lycidas.

80

In some still evening, when the whispering breeze
Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees.
To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed,
If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed.

While plants their shade, or flowers their odors give,

Thy name, thy honor, and thy praise shall live!

THYRSIS.

But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews: 85 Arise; the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay; Time conquers all, and we must Time obey. Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, streams, and

groves;

Adieu, ye shepherds' rural lays and loves;
Adieu, my flocks; farewell, ye sylvan crew;
Daphne, farewell; and all the world, adieu!

90

89, &c. These last four lines allude to the several subjects of the four pastorals, and to the several scenes of them particularised before in each.-P.

MESSIA H,

A SACRED ECLOGUE,

IN IMITATION OF

VIRGIL'S POLLIO.