The garlands fade, the vows are worn away; Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain! Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay! The shepherds cry, "Thy flocks are left a prey." Ah! what avails it me the flocks to keep, 70 75 Who lost my heart while I preserv'd my sheep? 80 What eyes but her's, alas, have pow'r to move? Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strains! 90 One leap from yonder cliff shall end my pains: 95 No more, ye hills, no more resound my strains! Thus sung the shepherds till th' approach of night, The skies yet blushing with departing light, When falling dews with spangles deck'd the glade, And the low sun had lengthen’d every shade. 100 WINTER. PASTORAL IV, OR, DAPHNE. TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. TEMPEST. Lycidas. THYRSIS! the music of that murm'ring spring Is not so mournful as the strains you sing; Nor rivers winding through the vales below, So sweetly warble, or so smoothly flow. Now sleeping flocks on their soft fleeces lie, The moon, serene in glory, mounts the sky, Whilst silent birds forget their tuneful lays, Oh sing of Daphne's fate, and Daphne's praise! 5 Thyr. Behold the groves that shine with silver frost, Their beauty wither'd, and their verdure lost. 11 Thames heard the numbers, as he flow'd along, Lyc. So may kind rains their vital moisture yield, And swell the future harvest of the field. Begin; this charge the dying Daphne gave, 16 And said, "Ye shepherds, sing around my grave!" Sing, while beside the shaded tomb I mourn, And with fresh bays her rural shrine adorn. 20 Thyr. Ye gentle Muses, leave your chrystal spring; Let nymphs and sylvans cypress garlands bring: Ye weeping Loves, the stream with myrtles hide, And break your boughs, as when Adonis died; And with your golden darts, now useless grown, 25 Inscribe a verse on this relenting stone : "Let Nature change, let heaven and earth deplore; "Fair Daphne's dead, and love is now no more!" "Tis done, and Nature's various charms decay; 30 35 1 For her the flocks refuse their verdant food, The thirsty heifers shun the gliding flood, The silver swans her hapless fate bemoan, In notes more sad than when they sing their own; 40 In hollow caves sweet Echo silent lies, Silent, or only to her name replies; 50 Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore; 55 60 |