Original Poems and Translations :: :: University of Virginia Library

The Queen he follow'd as she mov'd along
Surrounded by her nymphs, a beauteous throng;
But far the fairest, and supremely tall,
She walk'd majestic, and outshone them all:
Thus 'midst a grove the princely oak appears,
And high in air his branching honours rears.
Her radiant beauty charm'd his youthful mind,
Her purple robe that floated in the wind,
And locks bound graceful with a clasp behind:
But her bright eyes, instilling fond desire,
Beam'd sweetness temper'd with celestial fire.
Sage Mentor follow'd, as in thought profound,
And silent fix'd his eyes upon the ground.

And now, conducted by the royal dame,
Soon to the entrance of her grott they came,
Amaz'd to find within this lonely cell
Nature with all her rural graces dwell.

There no high-polish'd marble they behold,
No storied columns, and no sculptur'd gold;
No speaking busts, no silver richly wrought,
No breathing pictures seem'd inform'd with thought.
The grott, divided into various cells,
Was deck'd with spar, and variegated shells;
The place of tap'stry a young vine supply'd,
And spread her pliant arms on ev'ry side:
Cool zephyrs, tho' the sun intensely glow'd,
Breath'd thro' the place sweet freshness as they flow'd.
O'er amaranthine beds fair fountains stray'd,
And, softly murmuring, in the meadows play'd,
Or in broad basons pour'd the crystal wave,
Where oft the Goddess wont her limbs to lave.
Fast by the grott sweet flowers of every hue,
Purpling the lawn, in gay confusion grew.
Here wav'd a wood, all glorious to behold;
Of trees that bloom with vegetable gold;

Whose branches, in eternal blossom, yield
Fragrance delicious as the flowery field.
This wood, impervious to the solar ray,
Crown'd the fair spot, and guarded it from day.
Here birds melodious pour'd the sprightly song;
There torrents thunder'd the rough rocks among,
Down dash'd precipitately from the hills,
Then o'er the level lawn diffus'd their curling rills.

Calypso's grotto crown'd the breezy steep,
From whence appear'd the party-colour'd deep;
Now smooth and even as a mirror seen,
Now vainly wreaking on the rocks its spleen
Indignant, foaming with tremendous roar,
And in huge mountains rolling to the shore.
More pleasing was the prospect to the plain;
A river, winding thro' the rich champaign,
Form'd various isles with lines sweet-flowering crown'd,
And cloud-aspiring poplars border'd round.

Among the banks the sportive waters play'd,
And woo'd the lovely islands which they made:
Some swiftly pour'd their crystal currents strong;
Some led their waves with liquid lapse along;
With many an error lingering seem'd to stray,
As if they wish'd for ever here to stay,
And murmuring in their course reluctant roll'd away.
The distant mountains their hoar heads on high
Upheav'd, and lost their summits in the sky:
Their airy forms fantastic pleas'd the sight,
And fill'd the mind with wonder and delight.
The neighb'ring hills were spread by nature's boon
With vines that hung in many a fair festoon;
Whose swelling grapes in richest purple dy'd,
The leaves attempted, but in vain, to hide:
So lov'd the generous vine to flourish here,
It bent beneath the plenty of the year.
Here purple figs with luscious juice overflow'd,
With deepen'd red the full pomegranate glow'd;

The peaceful olive spread her branches round,
And every tree, with verdant honours crown'd,
Whose fruit the taste, whose flower the eye might cheer,
And seem'd to make a new Elysium here.

Cambridge, 1738.

Perhaps the reader will not be displeased to see Homer's description of this famous grotto, as it is translated by Mr. Pope from the fifth book of the Odyssey.

Large was the grott, in which the nymph he found,
(The fair-hair'd nymph with every beauty crown'd)
She sat and sung; the rocks resound her lays:
The cave was brighten'd with a rising blaze:
Cedar and frankincense, an odorous pile,
Flam'd on the hearth, and wide perfum'd the isle;
While she with work and song the time divides,
And thro' the loom the golden shuttle guides.
Without the grott, a various sylvan scene
Appear'd around, and groves of living green;
Poplars and alders ever quivering play'd,
And nodding cypress form'd a fragrant shade;
On whose high branches, waving with the storm,
The birds of broadest wing their mansion form;
The chough, the sea-mew, the loquacious crow,
And scream aloft, and skim the deeps below.
Depending vines the shelving cavern screen,
With purple clusters blushing thro' the green.
Four limpid fountains from the clefts distil,
And every fountain pours a several rill,
In mazy windings wandering down the hill:
Where bloomy meads with vivid greens were crown'd,
And glowing violets threw odours round.