To other cares than those of feeding you.
Where glens and vales are thickest overgrown
With tangled boughs, I wander now alone,
Till night descend, while blustering wind and shower
Beat on my temples through the shattered bower.
"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
To other cares than those of feeding you.
Alas! what rampant weeds now shame my fields,
And what a mildewed crop the furrow yields !
My rambling vines, unwedded to the trees,
Bear shrivelled grapes, my myrtles fail to please,
Nor please me more my flocks; they, slighted, turn
Their unavailing looks on me, and mourn.
"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due To other cares than those of feeding you. Ægon invites me to the hazel grove, Amyntas on the river's bank to rove, And young Alphesibous to a seat
Where branching elms exclude the mid-day heat.
'Here fountains spring,-here mossy hillocks rise;
Here Zephyr whispers, and the stream replies.'
Thus each persuades; but, deaf to every call,
I gain the thickets, and escape them all.
"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
To other cares than those of feeding you.
Then Mopsus said (the same who reads so well
The voice of birds, and what the stars foretell,
For he by chance had noticed my return):
'What means thy sullen mood, this deep concern?
Ah Thyrsis! thou art either crazed with love,
Or some sinister influence from above.
Dull Saturn's influence oft the shepherds rue;
His leaden shaft oblique has pierced thee through.'
"Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ;
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
The nymphs amazed my melancholy see,
And Thyrsis!' cry, 'what will become of thee?
What wouldst thou, Thyrsis? such should not appear
The brow of youth, stern, gloomy, and severe;
Brisk youth should laugh and love,-ah shun the fate
Of those, twice wretched mopes! who love too late!'
"Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ;
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
Ægle with Hyas came to soothe my pain,
And Baucis' daughter, Dryope the vain,
Fair Dryope, for voice and finger neat
Known far and near, and for her self-conceit;
Chloris too came, whose cottage on the lands
That skirt the Idumanian current stands ;
But all in vain they came, and but to see
Kind words and comfortable lost on me.
"Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ;
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
Ah biest indifference of the playful herd,
None by his fellow chosen or preferred!
No bonds of amity the flocks enthrall,
But each associates and is pleased with all.
So graze the dappled deer in numerous droves,
And all his kind alike the zebra loves;
The same law governs where the billows roar,
And Proteus' shoals o'erspread the desert shore.
The sparrow, meanest of the feathered race,
His fit companion finds in every place;
With whom he picks the grain that suits him best,
Flirts here and there, and late returns to rest,
And whom if chance the falcon make his prey,
Or hedger with his well-aimed arrow slay,
For no such loss the gay survivor grieves ;
New love he seeks, and new delight receives.
We only, an obdurate kind, rejoice,
Scorning all others in a single choice.
We scarce in thousands meet one kindred mind,
And, if the long-sought good at last we find,
When least we fear it Death our treasure steals,
And gives our heart a wound that nothing heals.
"Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are;
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
Ah what delusion lured me from my flocks,
To traverse Alpine snows and rugged rocks?
What need so great had I to visit Rome,
Now sunk in ruins, and herself a tomb?
Or, had she flourished still as when, of old,
For her sake Tityrus forsook his fold,
What need so great had I to incur a pause
Of thy sweet intercourse for such a cause,—
For such a cause to place the roaring sea,
Rocks, mountains, woods, between my friend and me?
Else had I grasped thy feeble hand, composed
Thy decent limbs, thy drooping eyelids closed,
And, at the last, had said—‘Farewell,-ascend,—
Nor even in the skies forget thy friend !'
"Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare;
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
Although well pleased, ye tuneful Tuscan swains!
My mind the memory of your worth retains,
Yet not your worth can teach me less to mourn
My Damon lost ;-he too was Tuscan born,
Born in your Lucca, city of renown,
And wit possessed, and genius, like your own.
Oh how elate was I when, stretched beside
The murmuring course of Arno's breezy tide,
Beneath the poplar grove I passed my hours,
Now cropping myrtles, and now vernal flowers,
And hearing, as I lay at ease along,
Your swains contending for the prize of song!
I also dared attempt (and, as it seems,
Not much displeased attempting) various themes;
For even I can presents boast from you,
The shepherd's pipe, and osier basket too,
And Dati and Francini both have made
My name familiar to the beechen shade ;-
And they are learned, and each in every place
Renowned for song, and both of Lydian race.
"Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare;
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
While bright the dewy grass with moonbeams shone,
And I stood hurdling-in my kids alone,
How often have I said (but thou hadst found
Ere then thy dark cold lodgment under ground)
'Now Damon sings, or springes sets for hares,
Or wicker-work for various use prepares!
How oft, indulging fancy, have I planned
New scenes of pleasure, that I hoped at hand,
Called thee abroad as I was wont, and cried,
'What hoa! my friend,-come lay thy task aside! .
Haste, let us forth together, and beguile
The heat beneath yon whispering shades awhile,
Or on the margin stray of Colne's clear flood,
Or where Cassibelan's grey turrets stood!
There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach
Thy friend the name and healing powers of each,
From the tall blue-bell to the dwarfish weed,
What the dry land and what the marshes breed,—
For all their kinds alike to thee are known,
And the whole art of Galen is thy own.'
Ah perish Galen's art, and withered be
The useless herbs that gave not health to thee!
Twelve evenings since, as in poetic dream
I meditating sat some statelier theme,
The reeds no sooner touched my lip, though new
And unessayed before, than wide they flew,
Bursting their waxen bands, nor could sustain
The deep-toned music of the solemn strain;
And I am vain perhaps, but I will tell
How proud a theme I choose,-ye groves, farewell!
"Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
Of Brutus, Dardan chief, my song shall be,
How with his barks he ploughed the British sea,
First from Rutupia's towering headland seen;
And of his consort's reign, fair Imogen;
Of Brennus and Belinus, brothers bold,
And of Arviragus, and how of old
Our hardy sires the Armorican controlled;
And of the wife of Gorloïs, who, surprised
By Uther in her husband's form disguised
(Such was the force of Merlin's art), became
Pregnant with Arthur of heroic fame.
These themes I now revolve,—and oh—if Fate
Proportion to these themes my lengthened date,
Adieu my shepherd's reed! yon pine-tree bough
Shall be thy future home; there dangle thou
Forgotten and disused, unless ere long
Thou change thy Latian for a British song.
A British? even so,--the powers of man
Are bounded; little is the most he can:
And it shall well suffice me, and shall be
Fame, and proud recompense enough for me,
If Usa, golden-haired, my verse may learn
If Alain bending o'er his crystal urn,
Swift-whirling Abra, Trent's o'ershadowed stream,
Thames, lovelier far than all in my esteem,
Tamar's ore-tinctured flood, and, after these,
The wave-worn shores of utmost Orcades.
"Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare;
My thoughts are all now due to other care.
All this I kept in leaves of laurel-rind
Enfolded safe, and for thy view designed;
This, and a gift from Manso's hand beside,
(Manso, not least his native city's pride)—
Two cups, that radiant as their giver shone,
Adorned by sculpture with a double zone.
The spring was graven there; here slowly wird
The Red-sea shores with groves of spices lined;
Her plumes of varicus nes amid the boughs
The sacred solitary Phoenix shows,
And, watchful of the dawn, reverts her head,
To see Aurora leave her watery bed.
In other part, the expansive vault above,
And there too, even there, the god of love;
With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays
A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze;
Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls,
Nor aims at vulgar minds, or little souls,
Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high
Sends every arrow to the lofty sky;
Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn
The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn.
"Thou also, Damon, (neither need I fear
That hope delusive) thou art also there;
For whither should simplicity like thine
Retire? where else such spotless virtue shine?
Thou dwell'st not (thought profane) in shades below,
Nor tears suit thee;-cease then, my tears, to flow!
Away with grief, on Damon ill bestowed!
Who, pure himself, has found a pure abode,
Has passed the showery arch, henceforth resides
With saints and heroes, and from flowing tides
Quaffs copious immortality and joy,
With hallowed lips!-Oh! blest without alloy,
And now enriched with all that faith can claim,
Look down, entreated by whatever name!
If Damon please thee most, that rural sound
Shall oft with echoes fill the groves around;
Or if Diodatus, by which alone
In those ethereal mansions thou art known.
Thy blush was maiden, and thy youth the taste
Of wedded bliss knew never, pure and chaste;
The honours therefore by divine decree
The lot of virgin worth are given to thee.
Thy brows encircled with a radiant band,
And the green palm-branch waving in thy hand,
Thou in immortal nuptials shalt rejoice,
And join with seraphs thy according voice,
Where rapture reigns, and the ecstatic lyre
Guides the blest orgies of the blazing choir."
AN ODE ADDRESSED TO MR. JOHN ROUSE,
LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
ON a dost volume of my poems, which he desired me to replace, that he might
add them to my other works deposited in the library.
STROPHE.
My twofold book! single in show,
But double in contents,
Neat, but not curiously adorned,-
Which, in his early youth,
A poet gave, no lofty one in truth,
Although an earnest wooer of the Muse-
Say, while in cool Ausonian shades
Or British wilds he roamed,
Striking by turns his native lyre,
By turns the Daunian lute,
And stepped almost in air,-
ANTISTROPHE.
Say, little book, what furtive hand
Thee from thy fellow-books conveyed,
What time, at the repeated suit
Of my most learned friend,
I sent thee forth an honoured traveller,
From our great city to the source of Thames,
Cærulean sire ;
Where rise the fountains, and the raptures ring
Of the Aonian choir,
Durable as yonder spheres,
And through the endless lapse of years
Secure to be admired?
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