"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. 66 66 Ægon invites me to the hazel grove, Amyntas, on the river's bank to rove, "And young Alphesibous to a seat "Where branching elms exclude the mid-day heat. "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you. "Then Mopsus said, (the same who reads so well 66 "The voice of birds, and what the stars foretell, "For he by chance had noticed my return,) "What means thy sullen mood, this deep concern? "Ah, Thyrsis! thou art either crazed with love, 66 Or some sinister influence from above; "Dull Saturn's influence oft the shepherds rue; "His leaden shaft oblique has pierced thee through.' Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are, "My thoughts are all now due to other care. "The nymphs, amazed, my melancholy see, "And Thyrsis!' cry, 'what will become of thee? "What wouldst thou, Thyrsis? such should not appear "The brow of youth, stern, gloomy, and severe; "Brisk youth should laugh and love,—ah, shun the fate "Of those twice wretched mopes who love too late!' 66 66 · Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ; My thoughts are all now due to other care. Ægle with Hyas came, to soothe my pain, "And Baucis' daughter, Dryope the vain, "Fair Dryope, for voice and finger neat "Known far and near, and for her self-conceit; "Chloris too came, whose cottage on the lands "That skirt the Idumanian current stands ; "But all in vain they came, and but to see "Kind words, and comfortable, lost on me. 66 "Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ; My thoughts are all now due to other care. Ah, blest indifference of the playful herd, "None by his fellow chosen, or preferred! "No bonds of amity the flocks enthral, "But each associates and is pleased with all; "So graze the dappled deer in numerous droves, "And all his kind alike the zebra loves; "The same law governs where the billows roar, "And Proteus' shoals o'erspread the desert shore; "The sparrow, meanest of the feathered race, "His fit companion finds in every place, ! 20 130 140 "With whom he picks the grain that suits him best, "Flirts here and there, and late returns to rest, "And whom, if chance the falcon make his prey, 66 Scorning all others, in a single choice. "We scarce in thousands meet one kindred mind; "Rocks, mountains, woods, between my friend and me? 66 66 Thy decent limbs, thy drooping eyelids closed, And, at the last, had said- Farewell,-ascend,"Nor even in the skies forget thy friend!' "Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare; "My thoughts are all now due to other care. 66 Although well pleased, ye tuneful Tuscan swains! My mind the memory of your worth retains, "Yet not your worth can teach me less to mourn My Damon lost ;-he too was Tuscan born, "Born in your Lucca, city of renown! "And wit possessed, and genius, like your own. 66 'Oh, how elate was I, when stretched beside "The murmuring course of Arno's breezy tide, "Beneath the poplar grove I passed my hours, "Now cropping myrtles, and now vernal flowers, "And hearing, as I lay at ease along, "Your swains contending for the prize of song! "I also dared attempt (and, as it seems, "Not much displeased attempting) various themes, "For even I can presents boast from you, "The shepherd's pipe, and osier basket too; "And Dati, and Francini, both have made 66 My name familiar to the beechen shade, "And they are learned, and each in every place "Renowned for song, and both of Lydian race. 66 "Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare; My thoughts are all now due to other care. "While bright the dewy grass with moonbeams shone, "And I stood hurdling in my kids alone, 150 160 170 180 190 "How often have I said (but thou hadst found 66 6 66 6 What, hoa! my friend, - -come lay thy task aside, Haste, let us forth together, and beguile "The heat beneath yon whispering shades awhile, "Or on the margin stray of Colne's clear flood, "Or where Cassibelan's grey turrets stood ! "There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach 666 Thy friend the name and healing powers of each, "From the tall bluebell to the dwarfish weed, "What the dry land and what the marshes breed, "For all their kinds alike to thee are known, "And the whole art of Galen is thy own.' Ah, perish Galen's art, and withered be "The useless herbs that gave not health to thee! "Twelve evenings since, as in poetic dream "I meditating sat some statelier theme, "The reeds no sooner touched my lip, though new "And unessayed before, than wide they flew, 66 Bursting their waxen bands, nor could sustain "The deep-toned music of the solemn strain; "And I am vain perhaps, but I will tell "How proud a theme I chose,-ye groves, farewell! 66 "How with his barks he ploughed the British sea, "First from Rutupia's towering headland seen, 66 By Uther, in her husband's form disguised "(Such was the force of Merlin's art), became "Pregnant with Arthur of heroic fame. "These themes I now revolve,—and oh, if Fate 66 Proportion to these themes my lengthened date, "Adieu my shepherd's reed! yon pine-tree bough "Shall be thy future home; there dangle thou 66 Forgotten and disused, unless ere long "Thou change thy Latian for a British song; 66 Fame, and proud recompense enough for me, "If Usa, golden-haired, my verse may learn. 200 210 220 230 240 "If Alain bending o'er his crystal urn, "Swift-whirling Abra, Trent's o'ershadowed stream, 66 Thames, lovelier far than all in my esteem, 66 Tamar's ore-tinctured flood, and, after these, "The wave-worn shores of utmost Orcades. 66 Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare; 66 My thoughts are all now due to other care. "All this I kept in leaves of laurel-rind "Enfolded safe, and for thy view designed "This, and a gift from Manso's hand beside "(Manso, not least his native city's pride), "Two cups that radiant as their giver shone, "Adorned by sculpture with a double zone. "The spring was graven there; here slowly wind "The Red-sea shores, with groves of spices lined; "Her plumes of various hues amid the boughs "The sacred, solitary Phoenix shows, 66 And, watchful of the dawn, reverts her head "To see Aurora leave her watery bed. In other part, the expansive vault above, 250 260 "And there too, even there, the god of love; "With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays "A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze, 270 "Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls, "Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls, "Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high "Sends every arrow to the lofty sky; "Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn "The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn. 66 Thou, also, Damon (neither need I fear "That hope delusive), thou art also there; "For whither should simplicity like thine "Retire? where else such spotless virtue shine? "Thou dwellest not (thought profane) in shades below, "Nor tears suit thee;-cease then my tears to flow! 66 Away with grief, on Damon ill bestowed! "Who, pure himself, has found a pure abode, "Has passed the showery arch, henceforth resides "With saints and heroes, and from flowing tides 66 Quaffs copious immortality and joy, "With hallowed lips!-Oh! blest without alloy, "In those ethereal mansions thou art known. 66 Thy blush was maiden, and thy youth the taste "Of wedded bliss knew never, pure and chaste: "The honours, therefore, by divine decree "The lot of virgin worth, are given to thee; 280 290 300 "And the green palm-branch waving in thy hand, AN ODE ADDRESSED TO MR. JOHN ROUSE LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, ON A LOST VOLUME OF MY POEMS, WHICH HE DESIRED ME TO REPLACE, THAT HE MIGHT ADD THEM TO MY OTHER WORKS DEPOSITED IN THE LIBRARY. This Ode is rendered without rhyme, that it might more adequately represent the original, which, as Milton himself informs us, is of no certain measure. It may possibly for this reason disappoint the reader, though it cost the writer more labour than the translation of any other piece in the whole collection.-C. |