University of Virginia Library


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ELEGY, IMITATED FROM FLAMINIUS, Lib. iv. Page 18.

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The attribution of this poem is questionable.

These tears, Monimia, and these heart-felt groans
I pay, sad tribute for the joys I've lost;
Well pleas'd if life's last ebbing drop attones
My much-wrong'd Maid, and sooths her wand'ring ghost.
These now—nor will I long delay my part
In this dread scene of fatal misery;
Soon shall keen sorrow rend my perjur'd heart,
And join this faithless form in death to thee.
What tho' proud Stella share the nuptial bower
Which thy fond shepherd wove for thee alone.
With Stella I ne'er felt Love's genuine power,
Nor the strong tie of souls by choice made one.
But blind obedience to a parent's name,
(Curse the cold dictates of unfeeling Age!)
'Twas this forbade to nurse the mutual flame,
And in fond vows my willing heart engage.
For this I did to guilty wealth aspire,
To the calm haunts of gentle peace unknown;
Fondly for this profan'd love's hallow'd fire,
And hop'd for bliss when innocence was gone.

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Love ne'er in pomp with mean Ambition vies,
Love knows no joys beyond the simple plain;
The splendid roof of gilded Care he flies,
And dwells beneath some shed, a cottage swain.
Perhaps e'en now thy visionary Shade,
Pleas'd the sad realms of silence to resign,
Bursts the cold prison of the peaceful dead,
And waits the doom that seals my fate with thine.
Hark! or I dream, from the dull womb of death
The well-known summons cries, “False youth, prepare!”
(That voice, like whisper of young zephyr's breath,
Which oft in life could charm my love-sick ear.)
“I come”—nor longer will delay my part
In this dread scene of fatal misery;
E'en now keen sorrow rends my perjur'd heart,
And joins this faithless form in death to thee.