ON THE DEATH OF DAMON.

THE ARGUMENT.

Thyrsis and Damon, shepherds and neighbours, had always pursued the same studies, and had from their earliest days, been united in the closest friendship. Thyrsis, while travelling f improvement, received intelligence of the death of Damon, and, after a time, returning an finding it true, deplores himself, and his solitary condition, in this poem.

By Damon is to be understood Charles Deodati, connected with the Italian city of Lucca by father's side, in other respects an Englishman; a youth of uncommon genius, erudition, a virtue.

YE nymphs of Himera (for ye have shed
Erewhile for Daphnis, and for Hylas dead,
And over Bion's long-lamented bier,
The fruitless meed of many a sacred tear),

Now through the villas laved by Thames rehearse
The woes of Thyrsis in Sicilian verse,

What sighs he heaved, and how with groans profound
He made the woods and hollow rocks resound,
Young Damon dead; nor even ceased to pour
His lonely sorrows at the midnight hour.

The green wheat twice had nodded in the ear,
And golden harvest twice enriched the year,
Since Damon's lips had gasped for vital air
The last, last time, nor Thyrsis yet was there;
For he, enamoured of the Muse, remained
In Tuscan Fiorenza long detained,

But, stored at length with all he wished to learn,
For his flock's sake now hasted to return;
And when the shepherd had resumed his seat
At the elm's root, within his own retreat,

Then 'twas his lot, then, all his loss to know,

And, from his burthened heart, he vented thus his woe:

ΙΟ

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"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due

"To other cares than those of feeding you.

"Alas! what deities shall I suppose

"In heaven, or earth, concerned for human woes,
"Since, O my Damon ! their severe decree
"So soon condemns me to regret of thee!
"Departest thou thus, thy virtues unrepaid
"With fame and honour, like a vulgar shade?
"Let him forbid it whose bright rod controls
"And separates sordid from illustrious souls,
"Drive far the rabble, and to thee assign

"A happier lot, with spirits worthy thine!

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"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you.

"Whate'er befall, unless by cruel chance

"Thou shalt not moulder undeplored, but long

"The wolf first give me a forbidding glance,

Thy praise shall dwell on every shepherd's tongue ;

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"To Daphnis first they shall delight to pay,
"And, after him, to thee, the votive lay,
"While Pales shall the flocks and pastures love,
"Or Faunus to frequent the field or grove,
"At least, if ancient piety and truth,

"With all the learned labours of thy youth,

May serve thee aught, or to have left behind

"A sorrowing friend, and of the tuneful kind.

"Go, seek your home, my lanibs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you.

"Yes, Damon! such thy sure reward shall be ;
"But ah, what doom awaits unhappy me?
"Who now my pains and perils shall divide,
"As thou wast wont, for ever at my side,
"Both when the rugged frost annoyed our feet,
"And when the herbage all was parched with heat;
"Whether the grim wolf's ravage to prevent,
"Or the huge lion's, armed with darts we went?
"Whose converse, now, shall calm my stormy day,
"With charming song who now beguile my way?

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"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due

"To other cares than those of feeding you.

"In whom shall I confide? whose counsel find
"A balmy medicine for my troubled mind?
"Or whose discourse with innocent delight
"Shall fill me now, and cheat the wintry night,
"While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear,

"And blackening chestnuts start and crackle there,
"While storms abroad the dreary meadows whelm,

"And the wind thunders through the neighbouring elm? 70 "Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you.

"Or who, when summer suns their summit reach, "And Pan sleeps hidden by the sheltering beech,

"When shepherds disappear, nymphs seek the sedge,

"And the stretched rustic snores beneath the hedge, "Who then shall render me thy pleasant vein

"Of Attic wit, thy jests, thy smiles, again?

"To other cares than those of feeding you.

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"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due

"Where glens and vales are thickest overgrown "With tangled boughs, I wander now alone,

"Till night descend, while blustering wind and shower "Beat on my temples through the shattered bower.

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Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due

"To other cares than those of feeding you.

"Alas! what rampant weeds now shame my fields, "And what a mildewed crop the furrow yields !

My rambling vines, unwedded to the trees,

"Bear shrivelled grapes; my myrtles fail to please;
"Nor please me more my flocks; they, slighted, turn
"Their unavailing looks on me, and mourn.

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"Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due "To other cares than those of feeding you.

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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.
"Here fountains spring,-here mossy hillocks rise;
"Here Zephyr whispers, and the stream replies.'
"Thus each persuades, but, deaf to every call,
"I gain the thickets, and escape them all.

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"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 "The voice of birds, and what the stars foretell, "For he by chance had noticed my return,)

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What means thy sullen mood, this deep concern? “Ah, Thyrsis! thou art either crazed with love, "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,

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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!'

"Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ;

"My thoughts are all now due to other care.

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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.

"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,

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"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,
"Or hedger with his well-aimed arrow slay,
"For no such loss the gay survivor grieves,
"New love he seeks, and new delight receives.
"We only, an obdurate kind, rejoice,

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Scorning all others, in a single choice.

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"We scarce in thousands meet one kindred mind;
"And if the long-sought good at last we find,
"When least we fear it, Death our treasure steals,
"And gives our heart a wound that nothing heals.
Go, go, my lambs, unpastured as ye are ;
"My thoughts are all now due to other care.
"Ah, what delusion lured me from my flocks,
"To traverse Alpine snows and rugged rocks!
"What need so great had I to visit Rome,
"Now sunk in ruins, and herself a tomb?
"Or, had she flourished still as when of old
"For her sake Tityrus forsook his fold,
"What need so great had I to incur a pause
"Of thy sweet intercourse for such a cause,
"For such a cause to place the roaring sea,

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Rocks, mountains, woods, between my friend and me?
Else, had I grasped thy feeble hand, composed
Thy decent limbs, thy drooping eyelids closed,
"And, at the last, had said- Farewell,-ascend,-
Nor even in the skies forget thy friend!'

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"Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare; "My thoughts are all now due to other care.

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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. "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

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My name familiar to the beechen shade,

"And they are learned, and each in every place "Renowned for song, and both of Lydian race.

"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,

"How often have I said (but thou hadst found
"Ere then thy dark cold lodgment under ground),
"Now Damon sings, or springes sets for hares,
"Or wickerwork for various use prepares!
"How oft, indulging fancy, have I planned
"New scenes of pleasure that I hoped at hand,
"Called thee abroad as I was wont, and cried,
"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
"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,
"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!
"Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare;

"My thoughts are all now due to other care. "Of Brutus, Dardan chief, my song shall be,

"How with his barks he ploughed the British sea,

"First from Rutupia's towering headland seen,
"And of his consort's reign, fair Imogen;
"Of Brennus and Belinus, brothers bold,
"And of Arviragus, and how of old
"Our hardy sires the Armorican controlled,
"And of the wife of Gorloïs, who, surprised

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,

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Proportion to these themes my lengthened date, "Adieu my shepherd's reed! yon pine-tree bough "Shall be thy future home; there dangle thou "Forgotten and disused, unless ere long "Thou change thy Latian for a British song; "A British?-even so,-the powers of man "Are bounded; little is the most he can : "And it shall well suffice me, and shall be "Fame, and proud recompense enough for me, "If Usa, golden-haired, my verse may learn.

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