oetia's shores, cleaves through the waves;
And feels desire as he the nymph beholds.
All he can urge to stay her flight he tries;
Yet still she flies him, swifter from her fear.
She gains a mountain's summit, which the shore
O'erhung. High to the main the lofty ridge
An undivided sbrubless top presents,
Down shelving to the sea. In safety here
She stood; and, dubious monster he, or god,
Admir'd his color, and the locks which spread
Adown his shoulders, and his back below:
And that a wreathing fish's form should end
His figure from his groin. He saw her gaze;
And on a neighbouring rock his elbow lean'd,
As thus he spoke.--"No monstrous thing am I,
"Fair virgin! nor a savage of the sea;
"A watery god I am; nor on the main
"Has Proteus; Triton; or Palaemon, son
"Of Athamas, more power. Yet time has been
"When I was mortal, yet even then attach'd
"To the deep water, on the ocean I,
"Still joy'd to labor. Now the following shoal
"Of fishes in my net I dragg'd; and now,
"Plac'd on a rock, I with my flexile rod
"Guided the line. Bordering a verdant mead
"A bank there lies, the waves its circuit bound
"In part; in part the virid grass surrounds;
"A mead which ne'er the horned herd had cropp'd:
"Where ne'er the placid flock, nor hairy goats
"Had brows'd; nor bees industrious cull'd the flowers
"For sweets: no genial chaplets there were pluck'd
"To grace the head; nor had the mower's arm
"E'er spoil'd the crop. The first of mortals, I
"On the turf rested. As my nets I dry'd;
"And as my captur'd scaly prey to count,
"Upon the grass I spread,--whatever the net
"Escape prevented, and the hook had snar'd
"Through their own folly. (Like a fiction sounds
"The fact, but what avails to me to feign?)
"Soon as the grass they touch, my captiv'd prey
"Begin to move, and on their sides to turn;
"And ply their fins on earth as in the main.
"Then, while with wonder struck I pause, all fly
"The shore in heaps, and their new master quit,
"Their native waves regaining. I, surpriz'd,
"Long doubtful stand to guess the wond'rous cause.
"Whether some god, or but the grasses' juice
"Accomplish'd this. What herb--at last, I said--
"Can power like this possess?--and with my hand
"Pluck'd up, and with my teeth the herbage chew'd.
"Scarce had my throat th' untasted juice first try'd,
"When all my entrails sudden tremblings shook,
"And with