Now through the villas laved by Thames rehearse
The woes of Thyrsis in Sicilian verse, [found
What sighs he heaved, and how with groans pro-
He made the woods and hollow rocks resound,
Young Damon dead; nor even ceased to pour
His lonely sorrows at the midnight hour.

The green wheat twice had nodded in the ear,
And golden harvest twice enrich'd the year,
Since Damon's lips had gasp'd for vital air
The last, last time, nor Thyrsis yet was there;
For he, enamour'd of the muse, remain'd
In Tuscan Fiorenza long detain'd,

But, stored at length with all he wish'd to learn,
For his flock's sake now hasted to return;
And when the shepherd had resumed his seat
At the elm's root, within his old retreat,

Then 'twas his lot, then, all his loss to know,

And from his burthen'd heart he vented thus his

woe:

[are due "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts To other cares than those of feeding you. Alas! what deities shall I suppose

In heaven, or earth, concern'd for human woes,
Since, Oh my Damon! their severe decree
So soon condemns me to regret of thee!
Depart'st thou thus, thy virtues unrepaid
With fame and honour, like a vulgar shade!
Let him forbid it whose bright rod controls,
And separates sordid from illustrious souls;
Drive far the rabble, and to thee assign
A happier lot with spirits worthy thine!

"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts To other cares than those of feeding you. [are due Whate'er befall, unless by cruel chance

The wolf first give me a forbidding glance,
Thou shalt not moulder undeplored, but long
Thy praise shall dwell on every shepherd's tongue.
To Daphnis first they shall delight to pay,
And, after him, to thee the votive lay,

While Pales shall the flocks and pastures love,
Or Faunus to frequent the field or grove;
At least, if ancient piety and truth,
With all the learned labours of thy youth,
May serve thee aught, or to have left behind
A sorrowing friend, and of the tuneful kind.

"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts
To other cares than those of feeding you. [are due
Yes, Damon! such thy sure reward shall be;
But ah, what doom awaits unhappy me?
Who, now, my pains and perils shall divide,
As thou wast wont, for ever at my side,
Both when the rugged frost annoy'd our feet,
And when the herbage all was parch'd with heat;
Whether the grim wolf's ravage to prevent,
Or the huge lion's, arm'd with darts we went?
Whose converse now shall calm my stormy day,
With charming song who now beguile my way?
"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts
To other cares than those of feeding you. [are due
In whom shall I confide? Whose counsel find

A balmy medicine for my troubled mind?

Or whose discourse with innocent delight

Shall fill me now, and cheat the wintry night,
While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear,
And blackening chestnuts start and crackle there,
While storms abroad the dreary meadows whelm,
And the wind thunders through the neighbouring
elm.
[are due
"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts
To other cares than those of feeding you.
Or who, when summer suns their summit reach,
And Pan sleeps hidden by the sheltering beech,
When shepherds disappear, nymphs seek the

sedge,

And the stretch'd rustic snores beneath the hedge,
Who then shall render me thy pleasant vein
Of Attic wit, thy jests, thy smiles again?

"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts To other cares than those of feeding you. [are due 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 shatter'd bower.

"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts To other cares than those of feeding you. [are due Alas! what rampant weeds now shame my fields, And what a mildew'd crop the furrow yields; My rambling vines, unwedded to the trees, Bear shrivel'd 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 To other cares than those of feeding you. [are due

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 midday 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

[late!' Of those, twice wretched mopes! who love too "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 blest indifference of the playful herd,
None by his fellow chosen, or preferr❜d!
No bonds of amity the flocks inthral,
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 feather'd 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 aim'd 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,