О СТ.1.1819.

143

OCCASIONAL ELEGY,

IN WHICH THE PRECEDING NARRATIVE IS CONCLUDed.

THE Scene of Death is closed! the mournful strains Dissolve in dying languor on the ear;

Yet Pity weeps, yet Sympathy complains,

And dumb Suspense awaits o'erwhelm'd with fear :

But the sad Muses with prophetic eye

At once the future and the past explore; Their harps Oblivion's influence can defy, And waft the spirit to th' eternal shore

Then, O Palemon! if thy shade can hear

The voice of Friendship still lament thy doom,

Yet to the sad oblations bend thine ear,
That rise in vocal incense o'er thy tomb:

From young Arion first the news received
With terror pale, unhappy Anna read;
With inconsolable distress she grieved,

And from her cheek the rose of beauty fled.

In vain, alas! the gentle virgin wept,

Corrosive anguish nipt her vital bloom; O'er her soft frame diseases sternly crept,

And gave the lovely victim to the tomb:

A longer date of woe, the widowed Wife
Her lamentable lot afflicted bore;

Yet both were rescued from the chains of life
Before Arion reached his native shore!

The Father, unrelenting phrenzy stung,
Untaught in Virtue's school distress to bear;
Severe remorse his tortured bosom wrung,
He languished, groaned, and perished in despair.

Ye lost companions of distress, adieu!

Your toils, and pains, and dangers are no more; The tempest now shall howl unheard by you,

While ocean smites in vain the trembling shore;

On you the blast, surcharged with rain and snow, In Winter's dismal nights no more shall beat; Unfelt by you the vertic Sun may glow,

And scorch the panting earth with baneful heat: