, by rival arts assail'd,
Fell Circe's hate and Scylla's doom bewail'd.--
Then sad Carmenta, with her royal lord,
Whom the fell sorceress clad, by arts abhorr'd,
With plumes; but still the regal stamp impress'd
On his imperial wings and lofty crest.--
Then she, whose tears the springing fount supplied;--
And she whose form above the rolling tide
Hangs a portentous cliff--the royal fair,
Who wrote the dictates of her last despair
To him whose ships had left the friendly strand.
With the keen steel in her determined hand.--
There, too, Pygmalion, with his new-made spouse,
With many more, I spied, whose amorous vows
And fates in never-dying song resound
Where Aganippe laves the sacred ground:--
And, last of all, I saw the lovely maid
Of Love unconscious, by an oath betray'd.
BOYD.
PART III.
Like one by wonder reft of speech, I stood
Pond'ring the mournful scene in pensive mood,
As one that waits advice. My guide in haste
Began:--"You let the moments run to waste
What objects hold you here?--my doom you know;
Compell'd to wander with the sons of woe!"--
"Oh, yet awhile afford your friendly aid!
You see my inmost soul;" submiss I said.
"The strong unsated wish you there can read;
The restless cravings of my mind to feed
With tidings of the dead."--In gentler tone
He said, "Your longings in your looks are known;
You wish to learn the names of those behind
Who through the vale in long procession wind:
I grant your prayer, if fate allows a space,"
He said, "their fortunes, as they come, to trace.--
See that majestic shade that moves along,
And claims obeisance from the ghostly throng:
'Tis Pompey; with the partner of his vows,
Who mourns the fortunes of her slaughter'd spouse,
By Egypt's servile band.--The next is he
Whom Love's tyrannic spell forbade to see
The danger by his cruel consort plann'd;
Till Fate surprised him by her treacherous hand.--
Let constancy and truth exalt the name
Of her, the lovely candidate for fame,
Who saved her spouse!--Then Pyramus is seen,
And Thisbe, through the shade, with pensive mien;--
Then Hero with Leander moves along,--
And great Ulysses, towering in the throng:
His visage wears the signs of anxious thought
There sad Penelope laments her lot:
With trickling tears
|