Yet feem'd her lip's etherial charm the fame; "DAMON, fhe faid, mine hour allotted flies; So may thy muse with virtuous fame be bleft! Faft by the reliques of fome happier maid ! Thou know'ft, how ling'ring on a distant shore No friend was near to raise my drooping head; Tho' now debarr'd of each domeftic tear; There many a friend shall grace my grace my woeful bier, And many a figh fhall rife, and tear fhall flow. I spoke, I fpoke, nor fate forbóre his trembling spoil; 'Twas then the youths, from ev'ry plain and grove, Adorn'd with mournful verfe thy SILVIA's bier; 'Twas then the nymphs their votive garlands wove, And strew'd the fragrance of the youthful year. But why alas! the tender fcene display? Cou'd DAMON's foot the pious path decline? Ah no! 'twas DAMON first attun'd his lay, And fure no fonnet was fo dear as thine. Thus was I bofom'd in the peaceful grave; My placid ghost no longer wept its doom; Shall my poor corfe, from hoftile realms convey'd, Say, wou'd thy breast no death-like torture feel, If If PEAN's fons these horrid rites require, If health's fair science be by these refin❜d, Let guilty convicts, for their use, expire; And let their breathless corfe avail mankind. Yet hard it seems, when guilt's last fine is paid, Where is the faith of ancient pagans fled? Arife, dear youth! ev'n now the danger calls; ELEGY ELE GY XXII: Reflections fuggefted by bis fituation. ORN near the fcene for* KENELM's fate renown'd B take my plaintive reed, and I range the And raise my lay, and bid the rocks resound Faft by the center of yon' various wild, grove, Where spreading oaks embow'r a Gothic fane; KENDRIDA's arts a brother's youth beguil❜d; There nature urg'd her tendereft pleas in vain. Soft o'er his birth, and o'er his infant hours, But foon the bofom's pleasing calm is flown; * KENELM in the Saxon heptarchy was heir to the kingdom of MERCIA; but being very young at his father's death, was, by the artifices of his fifter and her lover, depriv'd of his crown and life together. How kind were fortune, ah! how just were fate, To crown at once her lover, and her love! See, garnish'd for the chace, the fraudful maid But now, nor fhaggy hill, nor pathless plain, Where the rough bowman urg'd his headlong fteed, See THOMSON, loit'ring near fome limpid well, Or, ftudious of revolving seasons, tell, See How peerless LUCIA made all feasons fair!, from civic garlands fly, And in these groves indulge his tuneful vein !. Or from yon' fummit, with a guardian's eye, Obferve how freedom's hand attires the plain! Here |