 | I. |
 | II. |
|
|
|
|
|
 | Poetical works (1908) |  |
ECLOG. I. AMYNTAS.
1
It was the time faithfull Halcyone,Once more enjoying new-liv'd Ceyx bed,
Had left her young birds to the wavering sea,
Bidding him calm his proud white-curled head,
And change his mountains to a champian lea;
The time when gentle Flora's lover reignes,
Soft creeping all along green Neptunes smoothest plains;
2
When haplesse Thelgon (a poore fisher-swain)Came from his boat to tell the rocks his plaining:
In rocks he found, and the high-swelling main
More sense, more pitie farre, more love remaining,
Then in the great Amyntas fierce disdain:
Was not his peer for song 'mong all the lads,
Whose shrilling pipe, or voice the sea-born maiden glads.
3
About his head a rocky canopie,And craggy hangings round a shadow threw,
Rebutting Phœbus parching fervencie;
Into his bosome Zephyr softly flew;
Hard by his feet the sea came waving by;
The while to seas and rocks (poore swain!) he sang;
The while the seas & rocks answ'ring loud echoes rang.
176
4
You goodly Nymphs, that in your marble cellIn spending never spend your sportfull dayes,
Or when you list in pearled boats of shell
Glide on the dancing wave, that leaping playes
About the wanton skiffe, and you that dwell
In Neptunes court, the Oceans plenteous throng,
Deigne you to gently heare sad Thelgons plaining song.
5
When the raw blossome of my youth was yetIn my first childhoods green enclosure bound,
Of Aquadune I learnt to fold my net,
And spread the sail, and beat the river round,
And withy labyrinths in straits to set,
And guide my boat, where Thames and Isis heire
By lowly Æton slides, and Windsor proudly fair.
6
There while our thinne nets dangling in the windeHung on our oars tops, I learnt to sing
Among my Peers, apt words to fitly binde
In numerous verse: witnesse thou crystall Spring,
Where all the lads were pebles wont to finde;
And you thick hasles, that on Thamis brink
Did oft with dallying boughs his silver waters drink.
7
But when my tender youth 'gan fairly blow,I chang'd large Thames for Chamus narrower seas:
There as my yeares, so skill with yeares did grow;
And now my pipe the better sort did please;
So that with Limnus, and with Belgio
I durst to challenge all my fisher-peers,
That by learn'd Chamus banks did spend their youthfull yeares.
8
And Janus self, that oft with me compared,With his oft losses rais'd my victory;
That afterward in song he never dared
Provoke my conquering pipe, but enviously
177
And closely bite, when now he durst not bark,
Hating all others light, because himself was dark.
9
And whether nature, joyn'd with art, had wrought me,Or I too much beleev'd the fishers praise;
Or whether Phœbus self, or Muses taught me,
Too much enclin'd to verse, and Musick playes;
So farre credulitie, and youth had brought me,
I sang sad Telethusa's frustrate plaint,
And rustick Daphnis wrong, and magicks vain restraint:
10
And then appeas'd young Myrtilus, repiningAt generall contempt of shepherds life;
And rais'd my rime to sing of Richards climbing;
And taught our Chame to end the old-bred strife,
Mythicus claim to Nicias resigning:
The while his goodly Nymphs with song delighted,
My notes with choicest flowers, & garlands sweet requited.
11
From thence a Shepherd great, pleas'd with my song,Drew me to Basilissa's Courtly place:
Fair Basilissa, fairest maid among
The Nymphs that white-cliffe Albions forrests grace.
Her errand drove my slender bark along
The seas, which wash the fruitfull Germans land,
And swelling Rhene, whose wines run swiftly o're the sand.
12
But after bold'ned with my first successe,I durst assay the new-found paths, that led
To slavish Mosco's dullard sluggishnesse;
Whose slothfull Sunne all winter keeps his bed,
But never sleeps in summers wakefulnesse:
Yet all for nought: another took the gain:
Faitour, that reapt the pleasure of anothers pain!
178
13
And travelling along the Northern plains,At her command I past the bounding Twead,
And liv'd a while with Caledonian swains:
My life with fair Amyntas there I led:
Amyntas fair, whom still my sore heart plains.
Yet seem'd he then to love, as he was loved;
But (ah!) I fear, true love his high heart never proved.
14
And now he haunts th'infamous woods and downs,And on Napæan Nymphs doth wholly dote:
What cares he for poore Thelgons plaintfull sounds?
Thelgon, poore master of a poorer boat.
Janus is crept from his wont prison bounds,
And sits the Porter to his eare and minde:
What hope, Amyntas love a fisher-swain should finde?
15
Yet once he said, (which I, then fool, beleev'd)(The woods of it, and Damon witnesse be)
When in fair Albions fields he first arriv'd,
When I forget true Thelgons love to me,
The love which ne're my certain hope deceiv'd;
The wavering sea shall stand, and rocks remove:
He said, and I beleev'd: so credulous is love.
16
You steady rocks, why still do you stand still?You fleeting waves, why do you never stand?
Amyntas hath forgot his Thelgons quill;
His promise, and his love are writ in sand:
But rocks are firm, though Neptune rage his fill;
When thou, Amyntas, like the fire-drake rangest:
The sea keeps on his course, when like the winde thou changest.
17
Yet as I swiftly sail'd the other day,The setled rock seem'd from his seat remove,
And standing waves seem'd doubtfull of their way,
And by their stop thy wavering reprove:
179
Or else the rock and sea had heard my plaining.
But thou (ay me!) art onely constant in disdaining.
18
Ah! would thou knew'st how much it better wereTo 'bide among the simple fisher-swains:
No shrieching owl, no night-crow lodgeth here;
Nor is our simple pleasure mixt with pains:
Our sports begin with the beginning yeare,
In calms to pull the leaping fish to land,
In roughs to sing, and dance along the golden sand.
19
I have a pipe, which once thou lovedst well,(Was never pipe that gave a better sound)
Which oft to heare fair Thetis from her cell,
Thetis the Queen of seas, attended round
With hundred Nymphs and many powers that dwell
In th' Oceans rocky walls, came up to heare,
And gave me gifts, which still for thee lie hoarded here.
20
Here with sweet bayes the lovely myrtils grow,Where th'Oceans fair-cheekt maidens oft repair;
Here to my pipe they dancen on a row:
No other swain may come to note their fair;
Yet my Amyntas there with me shall go.
Proteus himself pipes to his flocks hereby,
Whom thou shalt heare, ne're seen by any jealous eye.
21
But (ah!) both me, and fishers he disdains,While I sit piping to the gadding winde,
Better that to the boysterous sea complains;
Sooner fierce waves are mov'd, then his hard minde:
I'le to some rock farre from our common mains,
And in his bottome learn forget my smart,
And blot Amyntas name from Thelgons wretched heart.
180
22
So up he rose, and lancht into the deep;Dividing with his oare the surging main,
Which dropping seem'd with teares his case to weep;
The whistling windes joyn'd with the seas to plain,
And o're his boat in whines lamenting creep.
Nought feared he fierce Oceans watry ire,
Who in his heart of grief and love felt equall fire.
FINIS.
| Poetical works (1908) | |