Proftrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And close embrace as to the roots they grew.
The face was all that now remain'd of thee,
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree;
Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear, 65
From ev'ry leaf distills a trickling tear,

And strait a voice, while yet a voice remains, Thus thro' the trembling boughs in fighs complains.

If to the wretched any faith be given,

I swear by all th' unpitying pow'rs of heav'n, 70
No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred;
In mutual innocence our lives we led:

74

If this be false, let these new greens decay,
Let founding axes lop my
limbs away,
And crackling flames on all my honours prey.
But from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let fome kind nurfe fupply a mother's care:
And to his mother let him oft be led,
Sport in her shades, and in her shades be fed;
Teach him, when firft his infant voice fhall frame
Imperfect words, and lifp his mother's name, 81
To hail this tree, and fay with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies:

Stagna tamen timeat; nec carpat ab arbore flores:
Et frutices omnes corpus putat effe Dearum.
Care, vale, conjux, et tu germana, paterque !
Quês fiqua eft pietas, ab acutae vulnere falcis; 90
A pecoris morfu frondes defendite noftras.
Et quoniam mihi fas ad vos incumbere non eft,
Erigite huc artus, et ad ofcula nostra venite, 95
Dum tangi poffunt, parvumque attollite natum.
Plura loqui nequeo. nam jam per candida mollis
Colla liber ferpit; fummoque cacumine condor.
Ex oculis removete manus. fine munere veftro
Contegat inductus morientia lumina cortex.
Defierant fimul ora loqui, fimul effe: diuque 100
Corpore mutato rami caluere recentes.

90

And when in youth he feeks the fhady woods,
Oh! let him fly the crystal lakes and floods, 85
Nor touch the fatal flow'rs; but, warn'd by me,
Believe a goddess shrin'd in ev'ry tree.
My fire, my fifter, and my spouse, farewel!
If in your breasts or love or pity dwell,
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browzing cattle or the piercing steel.
Farewell! and fince I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance at least to mine.
My fon, thy mother's parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kiss to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My clofing lips, and hides my head in fhades ;
Remove your hands, the bark fhall foon fuffice
Without their aid to seal these dying eyes.

95

She ceas'd at once to speak, and ceas'd to be ; And all the nymph was loft within the tree; 101 Yet latent life thro' her new branches reign'd, And long the plant a human heat retain'd.

VERTUMNUS

AND

POMONA:

From the FOURTEENTH Book of

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.