Lo! I'm the Bard, while o'er Pierian shades
The tuneful mountain rears its sacred heads,
While whisp'ring verdures skirt the laurell'd spring,
Whose fond, impassion'd muse of You shall sing;
And Love, enraptur'd with the Latian name,
With that dear race from which your lineage came,
In Latian strains shall celebrate your praise,
And tell your high descent to future days.
VICINA quantùm vitis lascivit in ulmo,
Et tortiles per ilicem
Brachia proceram stringunt immensa corimbi ; Tantùm, Neæra, si queas
In mea nexilibus proserperè colla lacertis ;
Tali, Neæra, si queam,
Candida perpetuùm nexu tua colla ligare,
Jungens perenne basium.
Tunc me nec Cereris, nec amici cura Lyæi,
Soporis aut amabilis,
[Et tortiles per ilicem, &c.] Horace has the same comparison, mentioning the erbraces of his Neæra :
Arctiùs atque hedera procera astringitur ilex,
Lentis adhærens brachiis.
AS round some neighbouring elm the vine
Its am'rous tendrils loves to twine;
As round the oak, in many a maze,
The ivy flings its gadding sprays:
Thus, let me to your snowy breast,
My dear Neæra! thus be prest;
While I as fondly in my arms,
Neæra, clasp thy yielding charms;
And, with one long, long kiss, improve
Our mutual ecstacies of love!
Should Ceres pour her plenteous hoard,
Should Bacchus crown the festive board,
Should balmy Sleep luxurious spread
His downy pinions o'er my head;
Yet not for these my joys I'd break,
For these, thy vermil lips forsake!
At length, when ruthless age denies
A longer bliss, and seals our eyes,
Not the tall oak could clasping ivy bind
So close, as round me thy fond arms were twin'd.
Vita, tuo de purpureo divelleret ore :
Sed mutuis in osculis
Defectos, ratis una duos portaret amanteis
Ad pallidam Ditis domum.
Mox per odoratos campos, et perpetuum ver
Produceremur in loca,
Semper ubi, antiquis in amoribus, heroinæ,
Heroas inter nobileis,
Aut ducunt choreas, alternave carmina lætæ,
In valle cantant myrteâ.
[Mox per odoratos campos, &c.] This description of Elysium seems to be imitated from Tibullus:
Hic choreæ, cantusque vigent, passimque vagantes
Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aves.
Fert casiam non culta seges, totosque per agros
Floret odoratis terra benigna rosis.
Ilicjuvenum series teneris immista puellis
Ludit, et assiduè prælia miscet amor.
Illic est cuicumque rapax mors venit amanti,
Et gerit insigni myrtea serta comâ.
TIBULL. LIB. I. ELEG. 3.
There joy and ceaseless revelry prevail ;
There soothing music floats on ev'ry gale;
There painted warblers hop from spray to spray,
And, wildly-pleasing, swell the gen'ral lay.
There ev'ry hedge, untaught, with cassia blooms,
And scents the ambient air with rich perfumes:
One bark shall waft our spirits o'er,
United, to the Stygian shore :
Then, passing thro' a transient night,
We'll enter soon those fields of light,
Where, breathing richest odours round,
A spring eternal paints the ground;
Where heroes once in valour prov'd,
And beauteous heroines once belov'd,
Again with mutual passion burn,
Feel all their wonted flames return;
And now in sportive measures tread
The flow'ry carpet of the mead;
Now sing the jocund, tuneful tale
Alternate in the myrtle vale:
There ev'ry mead a various plenty yields;
There lavish Flora paints the purple fields;
With ceaseless light a brighter Phoebus glows,
No sickness tortures, and no ocean flows;
But youths associate with the gentle fair,
And, stung with pleasure, to the shade repair:
With them love wanders wheresoe'er they stray,
Provokes to rapture, and inflames the play:
But chief the constant few, by death betray'd,
Reign, crown'd with myrtle, monarchs of the shade.
The classical reader, who wishes to compare other descriptions of Elysium with this of Secundus may turn to Homer. Odys. 4.-Pindar. Olymp. Od. 2.-Virgil. Æn. 6.-Plutarch. Consol. ad Apollon. 2.
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