From the fair natives of this peerless hill Thou gav'ft the fheep that browze Iberian plains: Their plaintive cries the faithless region fill, Their fleece adorns an haughty foe's domains. Ill-fated flocks from cliff to cliff they ftray; Far from their dams their native guardians far! Where the soft shepherd, all the livelong day, Chaunts his proud mistress to his hoarse guittar, But ALBION's youth her native fleece despise; Oft have I hurry'd down the rocky steep, Ere long she came: ah! woe is me, fhe came! Will no bright maid, by worth, by titles known, And let her charms, and her example, own That virtue's dress, and beauty's are the fame ? ́ Will no fam'd chief fupport this gen'rous maid: What pow'r unfeen my ravish'd fancy fires? To breathe my latest breath in * * * praise. O might my breath for * * * praise suffice, My ravish'd eyes! how calmly wou'd they close! was born to spread the gen'ral joy; ELEGY A Written in Spring 1743 GAIN the lab'ring hind inverts the foil; Again the merchant ploughs the tumid wave ; Another spring renews the foldier's toil, And finds me vacant in the rural cave. As the foft lyre display'd my wonted loves, He glanc'd contemptuous o'er my ruin'd fold; Yes, ALPHEUS! fly the purer paths of fate; Here nobly zealous, in my youthful hours, I dreft an altar to THALIA's name; Here as I crown'd the verdant fhrine with flow'rs, DAMON, she cry'd, if pleas'd with honest praise, Swear that no lucre fhall thy zeal betray; Swerve not thy foot with fortune's vot❜ries more; Brand thou their lives, and brand their lifelefs dayThe winning phantom urg'd me, and I swore. Forth from the ruftic altar fwift I ftray'd, * And threw my jav'lin tow'rds their hoftile tow'rs. Think not regretful I furvey the deed; Or added years no more the zeal allow; Still, ftill obfervant to the grove I speed, The shrine embellish, and repeat the vow. Sworn from his cradle ROME's relentless foe, Thy lake, O THRASIMENE ! beheld it glow, And CANNE'S walls, and TREBIA's crimson fhore. *The Roman ceremony in declaring war. + HANNIBAL. But But let grave annals paint the warrior's fame; Now Punic pride its final eve furvey'd ; Its hofts exhaufted, and its fleets on fire Patient the victors lurid frown obey'd, And faw th' unwilling elephants retire. But when their gold deprefs'd the yielding scale, He faw th' unutterable grief prevail; He saw their tears, and, in his fury, fmil'd. Think not, he cry'd, ye view the fmiles of ease, But were it cordial, this detefted fmile, Why weep ye now! ye faw with tearless eye Where lurk'd the coward tear, the lazy figh, |