The trembling trees, in every plain and wood, The silver flood, so lately calm, appears Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with tears; The winds, and trees, and floods, her death deplore. Daphne our grief, our glory now no more! But see! where Daphne wondering mounts on high Above the clouds, above the starry sky! Eternal beauties grace the shining scene, Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green! There, while you rest in amaranthine bowers, Or from those meads select unfading flowers, Behold us kindly, who your name implore, Daphne, our goddess, and our grief no more! LYCIDAS. How all things listen, while thy muse complains! Such silence waits on Philomela's strains, In some still evening, when the whispering breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees. To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed, If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed. While plants their shade, or flowers their odours give, Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise, shall live! THYRSIS. But see! Orion sheds unwholesome dews; Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Time conquers all, and we must Time obey. Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, streams, and groves; Adieu, ye shepherd's rural lays and loves; Adieu, my flocks; farewell, ye sylvan crew: Daphne, farewell! and all the world, adieu! MESSIAH. A sacred Eclogue in Imitation of Virgil's Pollio. ADVERTISEMENT. In reading several passages of the prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ, and the felicities attend. ing it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity be tween many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising when we reflect, that the eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line for line; but selected such ideas as best agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the prophet are superior to those of the poet. YE nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: Rapt into future times, the bard begun : A Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son! And on its top descends the mystic dove. 15 (1) Isa. xi. ver 1. (2) Ch. xlv. ver. 8. (3) Ch. IIV ver. 4. All crimes shall cease, and ancient frauds shall fail; Returning Justice lift aloft her scale; Peace o'er the world her olive wand, extend, 25 30 And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend. 20 35 40 No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear; 45 From every face he wipes off every tear. In adamantines chains shall death be bound, And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound. As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, Seeks freshest pasture, and the purest air; Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs, By day o'ersees them, and by night protects; (1) Ch. ix. ver. 7. (2) Ch. xxxv. ver. 2. (3) Ch. xl. (4) Ch. xliii. ver. 18. and ch. xxxv.ver. 5, 6 (6) Ch. xi. ver. 11. ver. 3, 4. (5) Ch. xxv. ver. 8. 50 The tender lambs he raises in his arms, Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms: Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, 55 The promised father of the future age. No more shall nation2 against nation rise, 60 65 And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear 70 New falls of water murmuring in his ear. To leafless shrubs the flowery palms succeed, 75 The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead. The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. 8) The smiling infant in his hand shall take The crested basilisk and speckled snake, Pleased, the green lustre of the scales survey, 85 (1) Ch. ix. ver. 6. (2) Ch. ii. ver. 4. (3) Ch. lxv. ve (5) Ch. xli. ver. 21, 22. (4) Ch. xxxv. ver. 1, 7. and ch. lv. ver. 13. (6) Ch xi. ver. 6, 7, 8. (7) lxv. ver. 25. (8; Ch lx. ver. 1. See a long race thy spacious courts adorn; 90 95 And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow: Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn; 100 One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze, O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 105 WINDSOR FOREST. To the Right Honourable George Lord Lansdowne VIRGIL THY forest, Windsor! and thy green retreats, (1) Ch. Ix. ver. 4. (2) Ch. Ix. ver 3. (3) Ch. Ix. ver. 6 (4) Ch. Ix. ver. 19, 20. (5) Ch. li. ver. 6, and ch. li ver. 10. |