y hazard, nor provoke
"Fierce beasts by nature arm'd, nor seek for fame.
"Nor youth nor beauty, such as Venus move,
"Will move the lion, or the bristly boar:
"Their eyes and breasts untouch'd by brightest charms.
"Thunder and lightning in his bended tusks
"The fierce boar carries; rapid is the force
"The tawny lion, (hated race!) exerts:
"My cause of hatred when to thee disclos'd,
"Will raise thy wonder at the monstrous crime,
"In days of yore committed. Now hard toil
"Unwonted tires me. Lo! the poplar's shade
"So opportune invites; and the green turf
"A couch presents. Upon the ground with thee
"I'll rest:--she spoke, and as she stretch'd along,
"She press'd the grass, and press'd the lovely youth:
"Smiling, her head upon his breast reclin'd,
"'Midst intermingling kisses, thus she spoke.--

"Perhaps thou'st heard of that renowned maid,
"Whose fleetness in the race the swiftest man's
"Surpass'd. Not fabulous the tale you heard:
"She vanquish'd all. And hard it was to say,
"If praise for swiftness, or for beauteous form,
"She most deserv'd. To her, who once enquir'd
"Of marriage, fate-predicting Phoebus said--
"A spouse would, Atalanta, be thy bane;
"Avoid an husband's couch. Yet wilt thou not
"An husband's couch avoid; but lose thyself,
"Thyself yet living.--Terror-struck to hear
"The sentence of the god, maiden she lives
"Amid the thickest woods; driving severe
"The throngs of pressing suitors from her far,
"By hard conditions.--Ne'er can I be gain'd--
"She said--till vanquish'd in the race. With me
"Your swiftness try: the conqueror in the strife,
"Shall gain me spouse, and gain a genial couch;
"But death must him who lags behind reward.
"Such be the laws of trial.--Pitiless
"The law appear'd; but (such is beauty's power)
"Crowds of rash lovers to the law agreed.
"There sat Hippomenes to view the race
"Unequal; and exclaim'd,--are there so mad,
"As seek a wife through peril so immense?--
"And the blind love of all the youths condemn'd.
"But when her face he saw, and saw her limbs
"Bar'd for the contest, (limbs like mine, or thine,
"Were thine of female mould,) amaz'd he look'd
"With uprais'd hands, and cry'd;--forgive my fault,
"Ye whom but now I blam'd; the great reward
"For which you labor, then to me unknown!--
"Thus praising, fire he feels, and hopes no youth
"More swift will run, and envious fear