Thou gav'st the sheep that browze Iberian plains: Their plaintive cries the faithlefs 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 defpife; Oft have I hurry'd down the rocky steep, Ere long fhe came: ah! woe is me, fhe came! Will no bright maid, by worth, by titles known, 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 O might my breath for ** praife. praise fuffice, How gently fhou'd my dying limbs repose! O might his future glory blefs mine eyes, My ravish'd eyes! how calmly wou'd they clofe! was born to spread the genʼral joy ; ELEGY A ELE GY XIX. 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 difplay'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, fhe cry'd, if pleas'd with honest praise, Swear that no lucre fhall thy zeal betray; Swerve not thy foot with fortune's voťries more; Brand thou their lives, and brand their lifeless dayThe winning phantom urg'd me, and I swore. Forth from the ruftic altar fwift I ftray'd, Think not regretful I furvey the deed; Sworn from his cradle ROME's relentless foe, And CANNE's walls, and TREBIA's crimfon fhore. *The Roman ceremony in declaring war. + HANNIBAL. But Fair fhine his arms in hiftory enroll'd; Whilft humbler lyres his civil worth proclaim, His nobler hate of avarice and gold. Now Punic pride its final eve furvey'd; And faw th' unwilling elephants retire. But when their gold deprefs'd the yielding fcale, 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 finile, Why weep ye now! ye faw with tearless eye |