r PR 4639 D98p THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES PASTORAL POEMS, BY WILLIAM DYASON, pniXTED FOK THE Al'JTIIOU, AND PUBLISHED BY M.Jones, Paternoster-Rou;. 1804". rrmle.l by J. H. Hart, '23, Waiwick-Siiuavc. %JtiJ OO '.is CONTENTS. I.ycidas and Corydon o Danccta and Mcnaka iG Van and Apollo^ or the Recovery 28 Dione, Mclibce, and T/iyrse, or the Apolugv, 41 Tityro and Phillis 86 Maoris and Pol/io, or the Occurrence .... 93 Mopsy, Damon, Thyrse, Alphcsibee, and Eliza, or the Contention 99 The Anchorite and Vitula, or Mirth and Solitude 107 LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. CoRYDON alone, lamenting the Loss of Amynta, his Lovert JijlOW hard my fate to "be a shepherd born ! How hard, ye gods, to wander thus forlorn ! Yet I'll repeat, and despair shall echo To groves, and swains, and nymphs, my tales of woe. ' '^ . Ye Dictaean maids, Amynta I lament ; Ye nymphs Hesperian, whither is she sent ? Thou morn effulgent, why unbind thy folds ? In vain proud Sol o'er Polyanthus rolls; In vairi, thou moon, and twilight vespers hue ; Oh, fly thou sun, ye lunar shades adieu ! Yet, chief, O night ! I woo thy sable sheen. And dewy beds, where I can weep unseen. B How 2 LYCIDAS AND CORYOON. How vain to me Nature's effluvia flows ! Her wild effusion can't abate my woes. Then I, Aristaeus, will keep the sliades with thee ; Amynta I, for Eurydice, you be. Oh, tell ! thou Delius, thou know'st Pernassus' height, Tell where's Amynta fluttering her flight ? 1, being unacquainted with her sleep ; Nor Cytheron, Dictynna, know the deep. Apollo, tell if she the heights ascend ; Or if to Erebus I my course should bend. Say, if there's my love, but tell me, shall I meet ; Say, if in Heaven, or dreaming in the deep. Oh, deeper woes on woes do yet abound ! Perchance, no traces are there to be found ; And I, a shepherd, humble, meek, and low. Must tarry here, where'er Amynta go I Nor Linus* ode, or Orphean power to chime ; I can't, like Arlon, build the lofty rhyme. Groves, forests, vile, lie dreaming with thy fame; Arcadia, Palilia, do the same. And Damon swains near all forget their pipes ; Their flocks are lost, yet Lycid' gay, delights. Why, thou Lycidian train, remain so gay. And idly vain, on tiptoes' borrow'd day ; Ye, LYCIDAS AND C&RYDO^K. 'Ycj^hus cnchartted on your laurell'd baftks, 3)eign from your heights, and take my humble thanks ; Nor be ambitious o'er thy brother swain ; Or jocund longer, chaunting airs amain. Deign, ye sequester'd nymphs, a little time. Ye shepherd 3'oaths, attend my humble rhyme.; And satyrs cease to teize the sylvan shades, -Or haunts unholy, fright'ning nectar'd glades. Now let me echo through the lofty skies, Resounding azure, tell who claims my sighs : Tell, at Amynta's grove I raise my tomb, Oppressed deep, and low as Lybia's gloom. As sadest Negro 'twixt European claw ; But Pollio, silent servitude my law : Nor chid me not, ye mighty gods above. That all my life I mourn Amynta's love ; Nor ye, w^ho are companions to my S(Mig, Do not lament that I detain ye long. I lead ye o'er no toilsome climes with me, But give at home my heart's sad history. If in this lay unlawful I appear. Remember, nought but wretchedness I wear, A youth unskill'd in figures of his art, A youth, who feels now what he wntes in part. 8 Then, f LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. Then, if in other climes, or Britain's vale ; What matters where, when nature's worn so pale. Then let me Oh ! attend ! nor leave me so ; O let me weep ! return, and tell my woe. Why, Phoebus, yet thy daily visit pay ? Whose solar beams raise no responsive lay ; Or, I've no more the sense of mortal cheers, Where white flocks feed, or red rose-bud appears. AfFected hues of Cypress I imbibe. And deep communion to redeem my bride : Nor I no more hold dance in vocal airs. Where Thyrsis and Menalcas take their pairs^ Propitious Muse ! I now loose all thy dawn. And Orpheus, who cheer'd the balmy lawn ; Or more with Pallas break the rocid green ; A sacrifice is all I now would seem ; Therefore, approach, to raise the wretched prize. Ye who are fam'd so gloriously to rise ! In awful tones, the trembling shades here heap ; But, first my frame in holy incense steep ; Extracted from ambrosia's gummy gems. And drain their incense, and consume their stems. Come, now, take your farewell of Corydon ; For he forsakes CEolia's grove alone j And leaves ye all to raise in higher strains. Ye celebrating great Mellisa's plains. Aspiring T VCIDAS AND CORYDOK. 5 Aspiring poplars, myrtles' balmy hue ; Ye that on altars lambkins oft imbrue ; Ye gath'ring fruits, to lofty airs unborn. When Hesper bids, ye fold your flocks, adorn ; Adorn my gloom ! yet listen swains to me. That thus bestows these solemn charms too free. If garlands dight an anxious shepherd's shrine, With joyous hearts, and suppliant hands combine. Ah! ah! but, how! how! unavailing paid, Veil'd still in shadowy glooms let me be laid. No more, ye Fates, then unpropitious share ; For I'll auspicious follow my lost fair. Hence worldly joys, to me but grievous toils ! Exuberant in weakness, deep in broils. Amynta, I, Amynta, I lament ! Deploring I ! Amynta I lament I O goddess ! there must be with thee conceal'd. Some hapless place, or golden flocks o'crveil'd. Vermilion cheeks, or dismal glooms o'ersprcad. Gay purple vest, or filthy dust thy bed ; Joyous pipes, or dark tremendous cries ! And murmurs serving to confute our eyes. Distract our thoughts, and fluctuate our breasts. Ah, Phoebus ! daily doubt I where she rests ; 'Tis mine, poor Coryd, Coryd's to deplore ! Despair is mine ! Amynta is no more ! B i Wa '6 tYCnSAS A,ND CORYDON. Was ever swain or shepherdess like me ? A wretched youth, and wretched still to be. Why, Orion, toss me in unseason'd storms. Midst furious flocks, and alienating charms ! Nor free from cottage mirth, and humble plains ; Nor free from haunts of shepherds, and the swains ;. Nor mine to sing, but sadness to revolve ; To fly the meadows, and to cease to rove : Yet, Oh, imagination ! yet would boast ; And yet to tell Amynta is not lost. Selected in Parnassus' heights, I see Gay Pallas' nymphs, sedately moving thee ; More beauteous than Cynthia serene. Revolving mutual tresses round the beam ; Yet now I loose the hope of all my flock ; O stay thou phantom ! stay Amynta, look ! Approach, fond maid ! nor longer let me mourn, Februa's depths I ye heights of Jove return ! Let Coryd view what pillars bears him up, What swains in other Bulls and Aries sup ; What Tl tyro's,, and Amarrilla's hie j What Corydons for new Alexis sigh : Or 9^, ye gods, shall Coryd be no more, W^hen he doth cease Amynta to deplore ; Or sltall I make Numidia my home. With lions on the Lybian coast to raain. Oh t LYCIDAS AKD CORYDOU. / Oh ! I'm dejected ! Fall, Fortuna, fall ! My lays no more the nymphs pastoral call. Ye cares, are ye entwin'd, ne'er to disband. But make a chaos of Pastora's land ? Unhappy I, ye herds I no more know ; No more for ye shall deep attention flow. List ! nor be mine adulation's theme : Jove, ruler of the hearts and minds of men ; Nor Fessonia mine ; she, cruel gods, afar ! Then humbly I, nor mount with Phoebus* car. Ye melancholy groves to me alone. And downy banks, returning to my moan j Nor more Euphrosyne, or Eroto raise : Cease, rural Florios, wreathed smile to praise. Tis mine, ye Gods immortal, to deplore ; Tis mine, ye nymphs, to weep my love no more ! t But, lo ! what swain doth this way now ap- proach ? Help me, ye Nine ! ye gods prerent reproach. Ah ! ah ! 'tis Lycidas ! sweet beauty's piime ; Tis he alone ! but he cannot be mine. Thus ended Corydon, and sit him down : Oh, sad to tell, when every joy is flown I And Lycidas came gayly up, as mirth. Unknowing love's oppression from his birth ; B 4 Smiling: 8 tYCIDAS AND CORYDON. Smiling said. Come, boy, come Ccrydon, the lutt Awaits thy hand, why linger sad and mute ? When Corydon : Ah, Lycidas ! how vain Thy efforts being to abate my pain ! I once was gay, and laugh'd at love like mine ; I onee was gay, and laugh'd at humble rhyme. Now fail my lambs, Tityro, and my sheep ; And now, alas, I turn from them to weep. Oh, dearest swain ! let not thy sacred hand Corrupted be with trimble, or with wand. With Hyacinth, or cowslips, twin'd about. With daisies, nor blue voilets thy rout ; Musk, roses, fragrant myrtles, cease to wear, O, Lycidas ! and from thy bosom tear. But, if thou can'st, say if condolement's thine. Or is't thy mutual fate to share with mine : O say ! O say ! thou Lycidas, declare. Tell, if thou didst behold the TEther bear ; Tell me, O swain ! a nymph, Amynta like, And I'll consign to you the woes that strike. And join thy echoes in the woody ray ; To me impart, I trembling will obey. Can we, responsive, trace her mansion out, Malevolent Fates, retreating thus about. As I've heard say, some spirits fly at night ; And yet I doubt Amynta's dusky light ! Still, LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. 9 Still, man's not form'd for. his own Maker's hate; Nor mine to doubt, yet 1 must doubt her fate : O teach me ! O Philosophy, come on ! The gods are just, or men always undone. Here ended Corydon, wrapt deep in thought. Adieu, O Lycidas ! availing nought. Bat Lycidas, determin'd not to leave The j^outh he lov'd, of ev'ry joy bereav'd ; Which instigation causeth him to speak : " And cease, said he, O intellectuals, weak I Nor ever wont to be as now thou art, Then let me sympathize, and take a part. Say, what removal now hath taken place ? What caus'd renouncement in the shepherd's chace ? Jove, and ye Nine ; Pan, ye immortals, hear ; AppoUo, Phoebus, whom the swains revere ; And, O my Coryd ! you my only trust, Remember, Gods for ever act but just ! Thus impressive, and sincere at heart. Spoke Lycidas ; and Corj'don renew'd his smart. No more I know impearl'd Melia's dews ; And I, alas ! Aristaean pipes refuse ; Nor I with vesper loll : or Venus taunt, vou see. Shake rocid boughs, or wake the morn with thee : No, 10 LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. 'No, nor exult more at Aurora's breath. Refulgent verdures, odours, meads, or heath. Here ended Corydon still slow, and sad. While Lycidas aggrieved, saw the lad : Thy lays are not Pastora's charms, O swain I But unresponsive and obdurate pain : Nor with Melissa sip the dewy tide ; Cease these thy woes torpescent to imbibe ; Crown rising Phoebus, and applaud my song, Contending lays now cease with Corydon. Libethrian nymphs come soft, and gently sing ; Come, cheer his shades, the reed uneven bring ; Narcissus fawn, and Corydon come gaie ; Thou swain, admire once more those piping ways Invoke the groves ! and Marvel Eglabine, Aiid they will on thee lusciously recline. Abundant will let flow their musky lymphs : Melia chaunt, Lemoniades, and nymphs ! Like AmphloD, all softly gliding on, Come and give Pan his niuch lov'd Corydon. Here ended Lycidas, when Corydon, Ah ! ah ! thou feel'st nor giving me the more, Amynta all ! Amynta I deplore ; Nor more said he when Lycid' thus began, O sweetest youth ! O once admir'd man ; What ! } LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. 11 What ! leave amort Euboean strains, and mute, Unmelodious, fair CElia's lute ? Ionia's swains, too, cease to drive their droves, Flocks heinous deem'd ; avert it, O ye gods ! Thou Astral lamp, Arcadia's chief delight, Thou humble swain, assuasive day and night. Hence wretched woe impulsive ! stir thy heart. Nor let Sylvanus longer feel the smart. But Coryd' here did interrupt the youth, O Lycidas ! averse to love and truth, Thy voice no more in raillery repeat, Thy heart, nor thee, no more I gayly meet. The death of fair Amynta I deplore, As Venus did Adonis, when no more. Thus Corydon ; when Licidas. No more ! ! Come, take exhalement of the morning air. Renew thy aook, abandon deep despair ; Illiterate obtusion begone, And Phoebus will iliuminate thy moan. Then as Tityro we our God will praise. Imbrue our lambkins, and our incense raise. Here ended Lycidas, when Corydon My songs no more with Lycidas I trow, Pan, nor the reed, Sicilian muses know. The dewy plains, Apollo, and the Nine, Menalc', Demaetus, and Palemon, thine ! Nor 12 LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. Nor knows Tityro, poor Tityro dear. How hard and inauspicious I fare. Go Lycidas, and cheer my sister's woe ; Go tell Tityro, all of me you know. But first thy hand, O Lycidas, then part, Hesperus rising, fain would sooth my heart. Here sad, and gloomy ended he, When Lycidas began. Unhappy me ! Fail harmony ! fail pipe, and jocund reed ! Nor rural cheer shall haunt Sylvanus' mead. Quit ! quit ! O Arethuse ! thy impious shore ; Nor deviating Alpheus, know the moor! Effulgent morn, expand no golden wings, Shepherds their pipes, I've lost my lyric strains. He, who surmounted once great Phoebus' car. Sleeps now nocturnal, nor re-echo's far. Return obnoxious, ye verdant hues ; For, in this youth a Nomius we loose ! Yet must, yet will, Pomona's berries sway ; Yet vain, and unsagacious, fall away ! When, when, sweet youth, wilt thou cease to de- plore ; When cease to weep, Amynta is no more. Sigh, Acldalus ! Lycidas is poor ; Ye fountain Limnadcs, droop your heads demure ; And LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. 13 And cease, thou Pan, to lead the valley jaunt. Ye gods support, nor trembling nature vaunt. Thus, deep affected, ended he, now low, and sad ; His countenance bespoke the feeling lad ; Mute silence kept in stedfast time the place. When Corydon bid him hie to the chace. swain, behold sweet rising vesper come ! Nor would I thus detain thee from thy home. With Horus go, with golden Phcebus fly, Th' Hesperides, whose pleasing sire I vie. 1 wish thee well, be bounteous, O Jove ! Bless Lycidas, O all ye gods of love ! Here left he speaking, and here still appear'd Anxious for Lycidas to go rever'd ; But Lycidas, approaching slow and sad. Did thus accost in gentle words the lad : W'hen wilt thou cease ? ah ! when cease to de- plore. And praise those gods whom once you did adore ; Nor said he more ; for, positive the lad, And anxious he uprose, with sorrow clad. When Phoebus turns to bays! Venus grows mild ! Mercury fond ! Diana, Venus' child ! Tnen, then, Araynta, cease I to lament! When nutriment for nutriment is sent. Here 14 LYCIDAS AND CORTDOX. Here ended he, down sitting on the bank. Negligently resting on the dank. Bid adieu to Lycidas once more, Who musing sit beside him to deplore. For thee I feel, O Corydon ! he said ; But all I feel or say for thee is dead : This to Menalca, Mopsy, Phil, I'll tell, Demoeta, Melibel, what woes befell ! TJnhappy flocks I unhappy swains ! now weep. Appropriated Lycidas to meet. Here ended he, nor language can now tell. What his sad countenance did speak so well. As resolute did Corydon renew ; For he, his present and past hours did view With sorrow, and he bid adieu to all. Saying, Thy tale aims but to make me fall : Farewell then ! O thou confident, farewelll Inspir'd by Phcebus, go my woes to tell I Protect him Jove, and all ye Nine, ador'd ! Protect him Pallas ! Pan, the rural lord ! Here, to the gods sommending, he the swain Did rise with haste, to seek his woe again ;' Alone to wander ; alone to keep the hour Of day, in grots ; of night, in lonely bow'r. Here saw Lycidas all his efforts now fail, -Nor song, nor sad condolement, could avail. Poor LYCIDAS AND CORYDON. 15 Poor Corydon, adieu ! said he, adieu ! I'll hence, and supplicate the gods for you ; Here weeping, ended, and flew o'er the mead. Poor Lycidas, to seek the nymphs, in speed. While Corydon, in seeming happiness. Fell on his knees, and thus did Jeve address : What others are, thon chiefest of my love, Jove dwellincr in magnificence above : Thou Truth ! Eternal Wisdom ! thou Exact ! With gratitude in excellence doth act ; Hope, mercy thine ; O Jove infinite clear ! Conspicuous, both extending far and near ; Abounding goods, but trifling ills pursue. And follow us from this world to the new ; Then shall I cease Amynta to deplore, To follow swains' shrill piping o'er the moor. If so, O God ! that love thou giv'st me now. That love, resulting first and last from thou, O take from me ! and let retention fail ! Let every thing be new, or nought avail ! DEMCETA ( 16 ) DEMCETA AND INIENALCA. Scene. A Landslip; Demceta and Menalca discovered: their Departure ^ and Adieu, DEMCETA. Obsequious Menalc' ; I leave the flocks, Spontaneous shrubs, and variegated heaths. Thy slumbers mossy, and thy piping muse, Expanded heights, and valleys low imbow'd. MENALCA. Nature's chief bloom ; nor raise responsive airs : Attentive move ; chaunt laurell'd Pliaebiis' praise ; Exile thyself ; leave rich Palilian games; Or s^wcious lawns; Aurora's affluence sing. DCEMETA. Still thou keep CEgon's flocks, exult in hyacinth. Where Hybloian bees sip flow'rets around. By trefoil flowers, intricate labyrinths ; Nor I meet us'd; their folds I no more know. MENALCA, DEMCETA AND MENALCA. 17 MENALCA. Nor Phoebus, thou, nor Nine, resound in vocal charms ; Or join the circled ring, re-echoing Jove ; But rural Pan obscure, and Aspin heights. Or Jove, Nine, Pallas, more delightful seem. DEMffiTA. Why sliould I breake the shepherds' humble shades; Or strain harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps ? But I, no more a swain : Jove fills the whole, Troas, Xanth, the elimental main. He, sacred Father ; and Menalc', by him Auroi-a, Zephyrus, TEolus play. Pierce Orion rolls, and seasons bend to him : He, and he alone, Omnipotent ! Made Lybia fierce, and dauntless Albion, Arcadia mild ; gave echos solitary. Like Phoebus, thou Menalc', and blushing hya- cinth ,' Nor cease to sing, with Cynthius, to Jove ; Nor cease to praise him with the golden morn : He humbleth me ; Urania he exalts ; Vitula, Astroea, Fortuna, his. He, comic Thalia, gave immortal string : What to Democt' ? Pieria's mount inspir'd : c He, 18 DEMCETA AND MENALCA. He, Mellissa, Pallas, to the groves did bring} Mars made tremendous, Pitho eloquent ; Ceres, Volusian seasons gave ; Clymene, night's gloom Hideous in shades, to scream in owlet's round. Ascolia gave to Bacchus, Pluto hell's loom, Menalca, rural sweets. Arcadian : Nor Atreus, Pelops, Hippodamia, Nor their long honor'd lines, so bleess'd as thee, Thou rural youth. Smiling Apollo's thine ; Thine, Cyane, Sylvanus, all Arcadia; But Agon's harsh, nor these, Mcnalc', I know ; Nor can I bear severe austerity : Hence I my flocks forsake ; hence weep, and lose my friend : Nor mine thou Syrinx nymph, nor mine to cheer ; Or musing know thy fam'd uneven reed : Or wondering hear the tale of Pan, and thee: How, from Syrinx, the rural pipe arose. Yet, oft I'll deign to sing of him and thee : Of him, who nrst gave pipe to rural song. Then will I weep, as now I weep, Menalca ! Remembering this my sad farewell to thee ; This last adieu, and this departing sigh ; Ah ! then my heart from sympathy will bleed, With every friend 1 leave a part of m^ And DEMCETA AND MENALCA. 19 And every sigh steals on my weary'd life. AVhen I reflect ; but still 'tis mine to leave The lyric branch of Micteus Antiope; yEtherous me^d, and sylvan Rusina ; Or hope to me thy rural pastures give. Still I must weep : instinctive nature's cause . Is sad oppression, and illiberal ties. Yet, I would Jove had softened iEgott's will. Nor Satyrs please, nor Arion, or Narciss ; No flowerin({ charms, melodious bestow. Nor they to me harmonious do appear ; Nor mix in happy rural sympathy ; Nor discontent did ever knaw my breast. Till sad oppression wreath'd my brow with care : And thus dejected left me as you see ; Nor Vesper, Sol, or Tamarisk delight. MENALCA. Absolve, and pardon me, if I'm too bold, * Impart, Demceta, to Menaka, all. Ah I ah ! 'tis not for me to weep, and leave my sheep. ^is not for me to smile ; Demoeta's gone. c 2 Why 20 DEMCETA AND MENALCA. Why anxious thou, alas ! to leave thy flocks ? Poor boy ! why thus dejected ? Come, forego The care aad sad oppression which thou feel'st; Or, obsequious I, from sympathy must weep; For, Nature universal reigns the same ; Her feeling and participation speaks All other words in that same sympathy : Unhappy I ! O youth ! forego thy ,care ; Nor sing discordance thus unknown to swains. Thou said'st 'twas