ve
"For sailyard, low beneath his feet had thrown;
"And grasp'd the pipe, an hundred 'pacted reeds
"Compos'd; the pastoral whistling all around
"The hills confess'd, and all the waters nigh.
"I, hid beneath a rock, my head reclin'd
"On my dear Acis' bosom, heard these words--,
"And still the words are noted in my breast.--

"O, Galatea! brighter than the leaves
"Of snow-white lilies; fresher than the meads;
"More lofty far than towering alder trees;
"Than chrystal clearer; than the wanton kid
"More gay; than shells, by ocean's constant waves
"Smooth polish'd, smoother; dearer than the shade
"In summer's heat; than winter's sun more dear;
"More than the apple bright; and fairer far
"Than lofty planetrees; clearer than the frost;
"More beauteous than the ripen'd grape; more soft
"Than the swan's plumage; or the new-prest milk:
"And, but thou fly'st, more than the garden fine
"With water'd streamlets. Yet the same art thou,
"Wild Galatea, than the untam'd steer
"More fierce; more stubborn than the ancient oak;
"Than water more deceitful; slippery more
"Than bending willows, or the greenest vines;
"More stubborn than these rocks; than seas more rough;
"Than the prais'd peacock prouder; sharper far
"Than fire; and piercing more than thistles keen.
"More savage than a nursing bear; more deaf
"Than raging billows; than the trodden snake
"More pitiless; and, what I more than all
"Would wish thou wast not, fleeter than the deer,
"Chas'd by shrill hunters; fleeter than wing'd air,
"Or winds. If well thou knew'st me, much thou'dst grieve
"That e'er thou fled'st; thou'dst blame thy dull delay,
"And sue and labor to retain my love.
"Caverns I have, scoop'd in the living rock
"Beneath the mountain's side, where never sun
"In mid-day heat, nor winter's cold can come.
"My apples bend the branches; grapes are mine
"On the long vine-trees clustering; some like gold;
"Some of a purple teint; and these and those
"Will I preserve for thee. Thy own fair hands
"Shall gather strawberries soft, beneath the shade;
"Autumnal cornels; and the purple plumb,
"Dark with its juice, and that still nobler kind
"Like new-made wax in hue. Nor shalt thou lack
"The chesnut; nor the red arbutus' fruit:
"Be but my spouse. All trees shall thee supply.
"Mine are these flocks, and thousands more besides
"Which roam the vallies; thousands like the w