The clotted gore. I, with what speed the while (Gaza is not in plight to say us nay), Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend With silent obsequy, and funeral train, Home to his father's house: there will I build him A monument, and plant it round with shade Of laurel ever green, and branching palm, With all his trophies hung, and acts inroll'd In copious legend, or sweet lyric song. Thither shall all the valiant youth resort, And from his memory inflame their breasts To matchless valour, and adventures high: The virgins also shall, on feastful days, Visit his tomb with flowers; only bewailing His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice, From whence captivity and loss of eyes. Chor. All is best, though we oft doubt What the unsearchable dispose Of highest Wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face,
But unexpectedly returns,
And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns, And all that band them to resist
His uncontrollable intent;
His servants he, with new acquist Of true experience, from this great event, With peace and consolation hath dismist, And calm of mind, all passion spent.
YET once more, O ye laurels, and once more Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude; And, with forced fingers rude,
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, Compels me to disturb your season due: For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer : Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. He must not float upon his watry bier Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, Without the meed of some melodious tear.
Begin then, sisters of the sacred well, That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring; Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string; Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse: So may some gentle muse
With lucky words favour my destined urn; And, as he passes, turn,
And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.
For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill. Together both, ere the high lawns appear'd Under the opening eye-lids of the morn, We drove a-field, and both together heard What time the gray fly winds her sultry horn, Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, Ost till the star, that rose at evening bright,
Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering
Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute,
Temper'd to the oaten flute;
Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel From the glad sound would not be absent long; And old Damætas loved to hear our song.
But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone, and never must return! Thee, shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves, With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, And all their echoes, mourn :
The willows, and the hazel copses green, Shall now no more be seen
Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. As killing as the canker to the rose,
Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, When first the white-thorn blows;
Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds' ear.
Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep
Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? For neither were ye playing on the steep, Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,
Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream: Ay me! I fondly dream,
Had ye been there: for what could that have done ? What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, Whom universal nature did lament,
When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, His gory visage down the stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore ?
Alas! what boots it with incessant care To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? Were it not better done, as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble minds)
To scorn delights and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise,' Phœbus replied, and touch'd my trembling ears; Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil
Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies: But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; As he pronounces lastly on each deed, Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.'
O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds! That strain I heard was of a higher mood: But now my oat proceeds,
And listens to the herald of the sea
That came in Neptune's plea;
He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon winds, What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain? And question'd every gust of rugged wings That blows from off each beaked promontory: They knew not of his story;
And sage Hippotades their answer brings, That not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd : The air was calm, and on the level brine Sleek Panope with all her sisters play'd. It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in the eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.
Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. Ah! who hath reft,' quoth he, 'my dearest pledge?" Last came, and last did go.'
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