'Tis thou art all my care and my delight,

My daily longing, and my dream by night:

Oh night more pleafing than the brightest day, 145
When fancy gives what abfence takes away,
And, drefs'd in all its vifionary charms,

Reftores my fair deferter to my arms!

150

155

Then round your neck in wanton wreath I twine,
Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine:
A thousand tender words I hear and speak;
A thousand melting kiffes give, and take :
Then fiercer joys, I blush to mention these,
Yet, while I blufh, confefs how much they please.
But when, with day, the sweet delufions fly,
And all things wake to life and joy, but I,
As if once more forfaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again :
Then frantic rife, and like fome Fury rove
Through lonely plains, and through the filent grove,
As if the filent grove, and lonely plains,

That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains.
I view the grotto, once the scene of love,

The rocks around, the hanging roofs above,

161

That charm'd me more, with native mofs o'ergrown, Than Phrygian marble, or the Parian stone,

NOTES.

166

I find

VER. 159. Through lonely plains,] Antra nemufque are not well rendered by "through lonely plains, &c." Ovid is concife and fpecific, Pope general.

At non invenio dominum fylvæque, meumque.

Vile folum locus eft: dos erat ille loci.
Agnovi preffas noti mihi cefpitis herbas :

De noftro curvum pondere gramen erat.
Incubui, tetigique locum qua parte fuifti;
Grata prius lacrymas combibit herba meas.
Quinetiam rami pofitis lugere videntur
Frondibus ; et nullæ dulce queruntur aves.
Sola virum non ulta pie moeftiffima mater
Concinit Ifmarium Daulias ales Ityn.
Ales Ityn, Sappho defertos cantat amores:
Hactenus, ut media cætera nocte filent.

Eft nitidus, vitroque magis perlucidus omni,
Fons facer; hunc multi numen habere putant.
Quem fupra ramos expandit aquatica lotos,

Una nemus; tenero cefpite terra viret.
Hic ego cum laffos pofuiffem fletibus artus,
Conftitit ante oculos Naïas una meos.
Conftitit, et dixit, "Quoniam non ignibus æquis

Ureris, Ambracias terra petenda tibi.

170

175

180

185

"Phœbus

I find the shades that veil'd our joys before;

But, Phaon gone, thofe fhades delight no more.
Here the prefs'd herbs with bending tops betray
Where oft entwin'd in am'rous folds we lay;
I kiss that earth which once was press'd by you,
And all with tears the withering herbs bedew.
For thee the fading trees appear to mourn,
And birds defer their fongs till thy return:

170

Night shades the groves, and all in filence lie,
All but the mournful Philomel and I :

175

With mournful Philomel I join my ftrain,
Of Tereus fhe, of Phaon I complain.

A fpring there is, whose filver waters show,
Clear as a glass, the fhining fands below:
A flow'ry Lotos spreads its arms above,
Shades all the banks, and seems itself a grove;
Eternal greens the moffy margin grace,

180

Watch'd by the fylvan Genius of the place:
Here as I lay, and fwell'd with tears the flood, 185
Before my fight a watʼry Virgin stood:

She stood and cry'd, "O you that love in vain!

Fly hence, and feek the fair Leucadian main ;

NOTES.

"There

VER. 188. Leucadian main ;] Addison, with his ufual exquifite humour, has given, in the 233d Spectator, an account of the per. fons, male and female, who leaped from the promontory of Leucate into the Ionian sea, in order to cure themfelves of the paffion of love. Their various characters, and effects of this leap, are de scribed with infinite pleafantry. One hundred and twenty-four males, and one hundred and twenty-fix females, took the leap in the 250th Olympiad; out of them one hundred and twenty were

"Phœbus ab excelfo, quantum patet, afpicit æquor:

"Actiacum populi Leucadiumque vocant. "Hinc fe Deucalion Pyrrhæ fuccenfus amore "Mifit, et illæfo corpore preffit aquas.

195

"Nec mora: verfus Amor tetigit lentiffima Pyrrhæ "Pectora; Deucalion igne levatus erat.

"Hanc legem locus ille tenet, pete protinus altam
"Leucadia; nec faxo defiluiffe time.”

Ut monuit, cum voce abiit. Ego frigida furgo: 200
Nec gravida lacrymas continuere genæ.
Ibimus, o Nymphæ, monftrataque faxa petemus.
Sit procul infano victus amore timor.

Quicquid erit, melius quam nunc erit: aura, fubito.
Et mea non magnum corpora pondus habent.
Tu quoque, mollis Amor, pennas fuppone cadenti :
Ne fim Leucadiæ mortua crimen aquæ.

Inde

NOTES.

perfectly cured. Sappho, arrayed like a Spartan virgin, and her harp in her hand, threw herfelf from the rock with fuch intrepidity, as was never before obferved in any who had attempted that very dangerous leap; from whence she never rose again, but was faid to be changed into a fwan as she fell, and was seen hovering in the air in that fhape. Alcæus arrived at the promontory of Leucate that very evening, in order to take the leap on her account; but hearing that her body could not be found, he very generously lamented her fall, and is faid to have written his 125th ode on that occafion. WARTON.

190

194

"There stands a rock, from whofe impending fteep
Apollo's fane furveys the rolling deep;
"There injur'd lovers, leaping from above,
"Their flames extinguish, and forget to love.
"Deucalion once with hopelefs fury burn'd,
“In vain he lov'd, relentless Pyrrha scorn'd:
"But when from hence he plung'd into the main,
"Deucalion fcorn'd, and Pyrrha lov'd in vain.
"Haste, Sappho, hafte, from high Leucadia throw
"Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below!"
She spoke, and vanish'd with the voice-I rise,
And filent tears fall trickling from my eyes.

I go, ye Nymphs! those rocks and feas to prove;
How much I fear, but ah, how much I love!
I go, ye Nymphs, where furious love infpires;

Let female fears fubmit to female fires.
To rocks and feas I fly from Phaon's hate,
And hope from feas and rocks a milder fate.
Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow,
And foftly lay me on the waves below!

200

205

And thou, kind Love, my finking limbs fuftain, Spread thy foft wings, and waft me o'er the main, Nor let a Lover's death the guiltlefs flood profane!.

NOTES.

On

VER. 207. Ye gentle gales,] These two lines have been quoted as the most smooth and mellifluous in our language; and they are fuppofed to derive their sweetness and harmony from the mixture of fo many Iambics. Pope himfelf preferred the following line to all he had written, with refpect to harmony:

Lo, where Mæotis fleeps, and hardly flows

WARTON.