And thither, oft as respite he required He soothed his pains of exile with the lyre. Then shook the hills, then trembled Peneus' shore, The upland elms descended to the plain, Our Saxon plunderers, in triumphant verse : Should he, kind mourner, o'er my death-bed bend, I shall but need to say-"Be yet my friend!" He, too, perhaps, shall bid the marble breathe Or of Parnassus or the Paphian isle, Shall bind my brows,-but I shall rest the while. And virtue's promised recompense be sure, Borne to those seats to which the blest aspire These rites, as fate permits, I shall survey IIO And, every cloud from my pure spirit driven, ! ON THE DEATH OF DAMON. THE ARGUMENT. Thyrsis and Damon, shepherds and neighbours, had always pursued the same studies, and had, from their earliest days, been united in the closest friendship. Thyrsis, while travelling for improvement, received intelligence of the death of Damon, and, after a time, returning and finding it true, deplores himself, and his solitary condition, in this poem. By Damon is to be understood Charles Deodati, connected with the Italian city of Lucca by his father's side, in other respects an Englishman; a youth of uncommon genius, erudition, and virtue. YE nymphs of Himera (for ye have shed Now through the villas laved by Thames rehearse The woes of Thyrsis in Sicilian verse, What sighs he heaved, and how with groans profound The green wheat twice had nodded in the ear, But, stored at length with all he wished to learn, Then 'twas his lot, then, all his loss to know, And, from his burthened heart, he vented thus his woe: 66 IO 20 Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. "Alas! what deities shall I suppose "In heaven, or earth, concerned for human woes, 66 Since, O my Damon! their severe decree "So soon condemns me to regret of thee! 30 "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. "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; 40 "To Daphnis first they shall delight to pay, "With all the learned labours of thy youth, 66 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 are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. 66 Yes, Damon! such thy sure reward shall be ; "But ah, what doom awaits unhappy me? 50 60 "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. "In whom shall I confide? whose counsel find "And blackening chestnuts start and crackle there, "And the wind thunders through the neighbouring elm? 70 Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. "Or who, when summer suns their summit reach, "To other cares than those of feeding you. 80 "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts 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 shattered bower. 66 '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, 66 My rambling vines, unwedded to the trees, 90 "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. 66 66 Ægon invites me to the hazel grove, Amyntas, on the river's bank to rove, "And young Alphesibœus to a seat "Where branching elms exclude the mid-day heat. "I gain the thickets, and escape them all. 66 100 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 66 66 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!' 66 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; 66 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 preferred! "No bonds of amity the flocks enthral, "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, 120 130 140 "And whom, if chance the falcon make his prey, "We scarce in thousands meet one kindred mind; 66 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, 66 66 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!' 66 66 66 "Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare; My thoughts are all now due to other care. Although well pleased, ye tuneful Tuscan swains! 66 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, 150 160 170 180 "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 66 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, 190 |