Now sleeping flocks on their soft fleeces lie, That call'd the listening Dryads to the plain? Lyc. So may kind rains their vital moisture yield, Thyr. Ye gentle Muses, leave your crystal spring; Let nymphs and silvans cypress-garlands bring : Ye weeping loves, the stream with myrtles hide, And break your bows, as when Adonis died; And with your golden darts, now useless grown, Inscribe a verse on this relenting stone: 'Let nature change, let heaven and earth deplore, Fair Daphne's dead, and love is now no more!' 'Tis done; and nature's various charms decay, See gloomy clouds obscure the cheerful day! Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honours scatter'd on her bier. See, where on earth the flowery glories lie, 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 shun the gliding flood; The silver swans her hapless fate bemoan, In notes more sad than when they sing their own; In hollow caves sweet Echo silent lies, Silent, or only to her name replies; Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore ; No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings, Or, hush'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays; Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with tears; Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green! [high But see! where Daphne wondering mounts on Above the clouds, above the starry sky! Eternal beauties grace the shining scene, There while you rest in amaranthine bowers, Lyc. How all things listen, while thy Muse complains! Such silence waits on Philomela's strains, In some still evening, when the whispering breeze While plants their shade, or flowers their odours give, Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise slrall live! Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay, MESSIAH. A SACRED ECLOGUE. IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S POLLIO. ADVERTISEMENT. In reading several passages of the prophet Isaiah, which foretel the coming of Christ, and the felicities attending it; I could not but observe a remarkable parity between 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 by 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. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation. Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: Rapt into future times, the bard begun; 2 Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies: Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 6. IMITATIONS. Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna; Now the virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. By means of thee, whatever relics of our crimes remain sball be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the earth in peace, with the virtues of his father.' Isaiah, ch. vii. ver. 14, 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and hear a son.'-Chap. ix. ver. 6, 7: Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, the Prince of Peace: of the increase of his government, and of his peace, there shall be no end: upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order and to establish it, with judgment, and with justice, for ever and ever.” 2 Isa. xi. ver. 1. 5 Ch. ix. ver. 7. 3 Ch. xiv. ver. 8. 4 Ch. xxv. ver, 4. |