46 Or taint-worm to the weanling-herds that graze, 4,7 Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, When first the white-thorn blows; 4, Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless 5/Clos'd o'er the head of your lov'd Lycidas? [deep For neither were ye playing on the steep, Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 42,Nor on the shaggy top of Mona* high, Nor yet where Devat spreads her wizard stream: 5 Ay me! I fondly dream! Had ye been there for what could that have done? When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise To scorn delights, and live laborious days; *The isles of Anglesey and of Man have both shared this title. + The river Dee; the ancient boundary between England and Vales, 2 And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise,' Set off to' the world, nor in broad rumour lies; Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed.'* O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth-sliding Mincius,* crown'd with vocal reeds! That strain I heard was of a higher mood: But now my oat proceeds, And listens to the herald of the sea That came in Neptune's plea; He ask❜d the waves, and ask'd the felon winds, They knew not of his story; And sage Hippotadest their answer brings, Built in the' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge * A river of Venetia, on whose banks Virgil was born. † Eolus, the son of Hippotas, One of the Nereides, who was commonly invoked by mariners in storms, 10 116 Like to that sanguine flower inscrib'd with woe. The pilot* of the Galilean lake; Two massy keys he bore of metals twain, He shook his miter'd locks, and stern bespake: [hold Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold? 16 Of other care they little reckoning make, Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, And shove away the worthy bidden guest; Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to... A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else the least That to the faithful herdman's art belongs? [sped; 22What recks it them? What need they? They are, And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread: Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing said: But that two-handed engine at the door Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." Return Alpheus, the dread voice is past, That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, And call the vales, and bid them hither cast Their bells, and flowercts of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, On whose fresh lap the swart-star sparely looks; 3Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes, 4 The white pink, and the pansy freak'd with jet, The musk-rose, and the well-attir'd woodbine, And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise; Where the great Vision of the guarded Mount,† * A Cornish giant. Mount St. Michael; not far from the Land's End in Cornwall, whence at low water it is accessible. The guarded mount, says Mr. Warton, is simply the fortified mount; and the great vision is the famous apparition of St. Michael, who is said to have appeared on the top of the mount, and to have directed a church to be built there. Or Numantia; a town of Old Castile, once highly celebrated in the Spanish history. Todd, GJ-Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 66 For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. Thus sang the uncouth swain to the' oaks and rills, * A description of our Saviour. |