Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear,
Their faded honours fcatter'd on her bier.
See, where on earth the flow'ry glories ly;
With her they flourish'd, and with her they die.
Ah! what avail the beauties Nature wore?
Fair Daphne's dead, and beauty is no more!
For her the flocks refuse their verdant food,
The thirsty heifers fhun the gliding flood,
The filver fwans her hapless fate bemoan,
In notes more fad than when they fing their own; 40 In hollow caves fweet Echo filent lies,
Silent, or only to her name replies ;
Her name with pleasure once the taught the fhore;
Now Daphne's dead, and pleasure is no more!
No grateful dews defcend from ev'ning skies,
Nor morning odours from the flow'rs arise;
No rich perfumes refresh the fruitful field,
Nor fragrant herbs their native incenfe yield.
The balmy zephyrs, filent fince her death,
Lament the ceafing of a sweeter breath;
Th' induftrious bees neglect their golden ftore!
Fair Daphne's dead, and sweetness is no more!
No more the mounting larks, while Daphne fings,
Shall, lift'ning in mid air, fufpend their wings;
No more the birds fhall imitate her lays,
Or, hush'd with wonder, hearken from the fprays:
No more the streams their murmurs fhall forbear,
A fweeter mufic than their own to hear,
But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal fhore,
Fair Daphne's dead, and mufic is no more!
Her fate is whifper'd by the gentle breeze,
And told in fighs to all the trembling trees;
The trembling trees, in ev'ry plain and wood,
Her fate remurmur to the filver flood;
The filver flood, fo lately calm, appears
Swell'd with new paffion, and o'erflows with tears;
The winds, and trees, and floods, her death deplore,
Daphne, our grief, our glory now no more!
But fee! where Daphne wond'ring mounts on high
Above the clouds, above the ftarry sky!
Eternal beauties grace the fhining scene,
Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green!
There while you reft in amaranthine bow'rs,
Or from thofe meads felect unfading flow'rs,
Behold us kindly, who your name implore,
Daphne, our goddefs, and our grief no more!
Lyc. How all things liften, while thy mufe com-
Such filence waits on philomela's strains, [plains!
In fome ftill ev'ning, when the whifp'ring breeze
Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees.
To thee, bright Goddess, oft a lamb fhall bleed,
If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed.
While plants their fhade, or flow'rs their odours give,
Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise fhall live!
Thyr. But fee, Orion sheds unwholesome dews;
Arife, the pines a noxious fhade diffuse;
Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay;
Time conquers all, and we must Time obey.
Adieu, ye Vales, ye Mountains, Streams and Groves ;
Adieu, ye Shepherds' rural Lays and Loves;
Adieu, my Flocks; farewell, ye Sylvan Crew;
Daphne, farewell; and all the World adieu!
A SACRED ECLOGUE,
IN IMITATION OF
VIRGIL's POLLIO.
In reading feveral paffages of the Prophet Ifaiah, which foretel the coming of Chrift, and the felicities attending it, I could not but obferve a remarkable pa rity between many of the thoughts and thofe in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not feem furrifing, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophefy on the fame fubject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but felected fuch ideas as best agreed with the nature of paftoral poetry, and difpofed them in that manner which ferved mort to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the lame in this Imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; fince it was written with this parag cular view, that the reader, by comparing the feveral thoughts, might fee how far the images and defcriptions of the Prophet are fuperior to thofe of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I fhall fubjoin the paffages of Ifaiah, and thofe of Virgil, under the fame difadvantage of a literai tranflation. P.
YE Nymphs of Solyma! begin the fong:
To heav'nly themes fublimer ftrains belong.
The moffy fountains, and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus, and th' Aonian maids,
Delight no more-O thou my voice infpire
Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd lips with fire!
Rapt into future times, the bard begun :
A Virgin fhall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son!
From Jeffe's root behold a branch arife,
Whofe facred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies:
Th' ætherial Spirit o'er its leaves shall move,
And on its top descends the mystic dove.
Yet Heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar
And in foft filence fhed the kindly fhow'r!
ver. 8. A Virgin fhall conceive---All crimes fhall cease, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv.
Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;
Jam nova progenies cælo demittitur alto.
Te duce, fi qua manent fceleris veftigia noftri,
Irrita perpetua folvent formidine terras-
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.
"Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is fent down from high heaven. By means of thee, whatever relics of our crimes remain fhall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He fhall govern the earth in peace, with the virtues of his father.
*Ifa. xi. ver. I. + Ch. xiv. ver. 8.
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