FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424  
425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   >>   >|  
ess! and our grief no more! LYCIDAS. How all things listen, while thy muse complains![39] Such silence waits on Philomela's strains, In some still ev'ning, when the whisp'ring breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees.[40] 80 To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed,[41] If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed. While plants their shade, or flow'rs their odours give,[42] Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise shall live![43] THYRSIS. But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews:[44] 85 Arise; the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must time obey,[45] Adieu ye vales, ye mountains, streams, and groves, Adieu ye shepherds' rural lays and loves; 90 Adieu, my flocks;[46] farewell, ye sylvan crew; Daphne, farewell; and all the word adieu![47] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: This was the poet's favourite Pastoral.--WARBURTON. It is professedly an imitation of Theocritus, whom Pope does not resemble, and whose Idylls he could only have read in a translation. The sources from which he really borrowed his materials will be seen in the notes.] [Footnote 2: This lady was of ancient family in Yorkshire, and particularly admired by the author's friend Mr. Walsh, who having celebrated her in a Pastoral Elegy, desired his friend to do the same, as appears from one of his letters, dated Sept. 9, 1706. "Your last Eclogue being on the same subject with mine on Mrs. Tempest's death, I should take it very kindly in you to give it a little turn, as if it were to the memory of the same lady." Her death having happened on the night of the great storm in 1703, gave a propriety to this Eclogue, which in its general turn alludes to it. The scene of the Pastoral lies in a grove, the time at midnight.--POPE. I do not find any lines that allude to the great storm of which the poet speaks.--WARTON. Nor I. On the contrary, all the allusions to the winds are of the gentler kind,--"balmy Zephyrs," "whispering breezes" and so forth. Miss Tempest was the daughter of Henry Tempest, of Newton Grange, York, and grand-daughter of Sir John Tempest, Bart. She died unmarried. When Pope's Pastoral first appeared in Tonson's Miscellany, it was entitled "To the memory of a Fair Young Lady."--CROKER.] [Footnote 3: This couplet
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424  
425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Tempest

 

Pastoral

 

Footnote

 
daughter
 

farewell

 
Eclogue
 

friend

 
memory
 

things

 
LYCIDAS

listen

 
subject
 
kindly
 
happened
 

celebrated

 
silence
 

author

 

family

 

ancient

 
Yorkshire

admired

 

letters

 
propriety
 

appears

 

desired

 

complains

 

Grange

 

Newton

 

unmarried

 

CROKER


couplet

 

entitled

 

appeared

 
Tonson
 

Miscellany

 

breezes

 
whispering
 

midnight

 
general
 

alludes


allude

 
gentler
 

Zephyrs

 
allusions
 

WARTON

 

speaks

 
contrary
 

Philomela

 

diffuse

 

noxious