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 f improvement, received intelligence of the death of Damon, and, after a time, returning an 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 father's side, in other respects an Englishman; a youth of uncommon genius, erudition, a virtue. YE nymphs of Himera (for ye have shed Now through the villas laved by Thames rehearse 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: ΙΟ 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, "A happier lot, with spirits worthy thine! 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 "Thou shalt not moulder undeplored, but long "The wolf first give me a forbidding glance, Thy praise shall dwell on every shepherd's tongue ; 40 66 "To Daphnis first they shall delight to pay, "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 lanibs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. "Yes, Damon! such thy sure reward shall be ; 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, "And Pan sleeps hidden by the sheltering beech, "When shepherds disappear, nymphs seek the sedge, "And the stretched rustic snores beneath the hedge, "Who then shall render me thy pleasant vein "Of Attic wit, thy jests, thy smiles, again? "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, "And what a mildewed crop the furrow yields ! My rambling vines, unwedded to the trees, "Bear shrivelled grapes; my myrtles fail to please; 90 "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. 66 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. 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 "The voice of birds, and what the stars foretell, "For he by chance had noticed my return,) 66 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, 66 My thoughts are all now due to other care. "The nymphs, amazed, my melancholy see, "And Thyrsis!' cry, what will become of thee? "Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ; "My thoughts are all now due to other care. 66 Ægle with Hyas came, to soothe my pain, "Known far and near, and for her self-conceit; "Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ; 110 120 130 140 "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, 66 Scorning all others, in a single choice. 66 "We scarce in thousands meet one kindred mind; 66 Rocks, mountains, woods, between my friend and me? 66 6 "Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare; "My thoughts are all now due to other care. 66 66 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 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, "How often have I said (but thou hadst found "The reeds no sooner touched my lip, though new "How proud a theme I chose,-ye groves, farewell! "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, 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, 66 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. 200 210 220 230 240 |