I view the grotto, once the scene of love, The rocks around, the hanging roofs above, That charm'd me more, with native moss o'ergrown, Than Phrygian marble, or the Parian stone : I find the shades that veil'd our joys before; But, Phaon gone, these shades delight no more. Here the press'd herbs with bending tops betray Where oft entwin'd in amorous 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 songs till thy return : Night shades the groves, and all in silence lie, All but the mournful Philomel and I : With mournful Philomel I join my strain, Of Tereus she, of Phaon I complain.
A spring there is, whose silver waters show, Clear as a glass, the shining sands below: A flowery lotos spreads its arms above, Shades all the banks, and seems itself a grove; Eternal greens the mossy margin grace, Watch'd by the silvan genius of the place. Here as I lay, and swelld with tears the flood, Before my sight a watery virgin stood : She stood and cried, O you that love in vain! Fly hence, and seek the fair Leucadian main; There stands a rock, from whose impending steep Apollo's fane surveys the rolling deep; There injur'd lovers, leaping from above, Their flames extinguish, and forget to love. Deucalion once with hopeless fury burn'd, In vain he lov'd, relentless Pyrrha scorn'd : But when from hence he plunged into the main, Deucalion scorn'd, and Pyrrha lov'd in vain.
Haste, Sappho, haste, from high Leucadia throw Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below!" She spoke, and vanish'd with the voice-I rise, And silent tears fall trickling from my eyes. I go, ye nymphs! those rocks and seas to prove; How much I fear, but ah, how much I love! I go, ye nymphs! where furious love inspires; Let female fears submit to female fires. To rocks and seas I fly from Phaon's hate, And hope from seas and rocks a milder fate. Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow, And softly lay me on the waves below! And thou, kind Love, my sinking limbs sustain, Spread thy soft wings, and waft me o'er the main, Nor let a lover's death the guiltless flood profane! On Phœbus' shrine my harp I'll then bestow, And this inscription shall be plac'd below : Here she who sung, to him that did inspire, Sappho to Phœbus consecrates her lyre; What suits with Sappho, Phœbus, suits with thee; The gift, the giver, and the god agree.'
But why, alas! relentless youth, ah why To distant seas must tender Sappho fly ? Thy charms than those may far more powerful be, And Phœbus' self is less a god to me. Ah! canst thou doom me to the rocks and sea, O far more faithless and more hard than they? Ah! can'st thou rather see this tender breast Dash'd on these rocks than to thy bosom press'd ? This breast which once, in vain! you lik'd so well; Where the Loves play'd, and where the Muses dwell. Alas! the Muses now no more inspire; Untun'd my lute, and silent is my lyre ; My languid numbers have forgot to flow, And fancy sinks beneath a weight of woe.
Ye Lesbian virgins, and ye Lesbian dames, Themes of my verse, and objects of my flames, No more your groves with my glad songs shall ring, No more these hands shall touch the trembling
My Phaon's fled, and I those arts resign ; (Wretch that I am, to call that Phaon mine!) Return, fair youth, return, and bring along Joy to my soul, and vigour to my song: Absent from thee, the poet's flame expires; But ah! how fiercely burn the lover's fires? Gods! can no prayers, no sighs, no numbers move One savage heart, or teach it how to love? The winds my prayers, my sighs, my numbers bear, The flying winds have lost them all in air! Oh when, alas! shall more auspicious gales To these fond eyes restore thy welcome sails? If you return-ah, why these long delays ? Poor Sappho dies while careless Phaon stays. O launch thy bark, nor fear the watery plain; Venus for thee shall smooth her native main. O launch thy bark, secure of prosperous gales; Cupid for thee shall spread the swelling sails. If you will fly-(yet ah! what cause can be, Too cruel youth, that you should fly from me?) If not from Phaon I must hope for ease, Ah, let me seek it from the raging seas : To raging seas unpitied I'll remove, And either cease to live or cease to love!
NINTH BOOK OF OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.
SHE said, and for her lost Galanthis sighs ; When the fair consort of her son replies : 'Since you a servant's ravish'd form bemoan, And kindly sigh for sorrows not your own, Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate A nearer woe, a sister's stranger fate. No nymph of Echalia could compare For beauteous form with Dryope the fair, Her tender mother's only hope and pride! (Myself the offspring of a second bride.) This nymph compress'd by him who rules the day, Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey, Andræmon lov'd; and, bless'd in all those charms That pleas'd a god, succeeded to her arms.
A lake there was with shelving banks around, Whose verdant summit fragrant myrtles crown'd. These shades, unknowing of the fates, she sought, And to the naiads flowery garlands brought : Her smiling babe (a pleasing charge) she press'd Within her arms, and nourish'd at her breast. Not distant far a watery lotos grows; The spring was new, and all the verdant boughs, Adorn'd with blossoms, promis'd fruits that vie In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye : Of these she cropp'd, to please her infant son, And I myself the same rash act had done! But, lo! I saw (as near her side I stood) The violated blossoms drop with blood;
Upon the tree I cast a frightful look ; The trembling tree with sudden horror shook. Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true) As from Priapus' lawless lust she flew, Forsook her form, and, fixing here, became A flowery plant, which still preserves her name.
This change unknown, astonish'd at the sight My trembling sister strove to urge her flight; And first the pardon of the nymphs implor'd, And those offended silvan powers ador'd: But when she backward would have fled, she found Her stiffening feet were rooted in the ground: In vain to free her fasten'd feet she strove, And as she struggles only moves above; She feels the' encroaching bark around her grow By quick degrees, and cover all below : Surpris'd at this, her trembling hand she heaves To rend her hair; her hand is fill'd with leaves! Where late was hair the shooting leaves are seen To rise, and shade her with a sudden green. The child Amphissus, to her bosom press'd, Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breast, And found the springs, that ne'er till then denied Their milky moisture, on a sudden dried. I saw, unhappy! what I now relate, And stood the helpless witness of thy fate, Embrac'd thy boughs, thy rising bark delay'd, There wish'd to grow, and mingle shade with shade. 'Behold Andræmon and the' unhappy sire
Appear, and for their Dryope inquire : A springing tree for Dryope they find, And print warm kisses on the panting rind. Prostrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew, And close embrace as to the roots they grew.
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