No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings,
Shall list'ning in mid air suspend their wings;
No more the birds shall imitate her lays,

Or hush'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays:
No more the streams their murmur shall forbear,
A sweeter music than their own to hear,
But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal shore,
Fair Daphne's dead, and music is no more!

Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze,
And told in sighs to all the trembling trees;
The trembling trees, in ev'ry plain and wood,
Her fate remurmur to the silver flood;
The silver flood, so lately calm, appears

Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with tears;
The winds and trees and floods her death deplore,
Daphne, our grief! our glory now no more!

But see! where Daphne wond'ring mounts on high
Above the clouds, above the starry sky1!
Eternal beauties grace the shining scene,
Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green!
There while you rest in Amaranthine bow'rs,
Or from those meads select unfading flow'rs,
Behold us kindly, who your name implore,
Daphne, our Goddess, and our grief no more!

LYCIDAS.

How all things listen, while thy Muse complains!
Such silence waits on Philomela's strains,

If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed.

To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed,

In some still ev'ning, when the whisp'ring breeze
Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees.

Co

Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise shall live!

THYRSIS.

But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews,

While plants their shade, or flow'rs their odours give,

Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse;

Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay,

Time conquers all, and we must Time obey.

Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, streams and groves,
Adieu, ye shepherd's rural lays and loves;
Adieu, my flocks, farewell ye sylvan crew,
Daphne, farewell, and all the world adieu2!

[Warton naturally compares the 'same beautiful change of circumstances' in Spenser's November (S. K.) and Milton's Lycidas, from line 155.]

2 These four last lines allude to the several subjects of the four Pastorals, and to the several scenes of them, particularized before in each. P.

SUMMER.

IN

ADVERTISEMENT.

N reading several passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One. may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but made use of such ideas as best agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the Prophet are superior to those of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation. P.

[Dr Johnson, who translated this poem into Latin verse as a college exercise, in his Life of Pope observes, "That the Messiah excels the Pollio is no great praise, if it be considered from what original the improvements are derived.' Many may, however, be indisposed to agree with the assumption for which so triumphant an explanation is found in the above remark. Whilst it is by no means improbable (see Merivale's Romans under the Empire, ch. XXVII, referred to by Conington) that 'Virgil was acquainted with the prophetic portions of the Jewish Scriptures, if not directly, at least through the medium of the so-called Sibylline oracles,' these references are in the Roman poet after all only ornaments of an offering distinctly intended to celebrate by anticipation the birth of a Roman child. In Pope these ornaments become the subject-matter of the poem, which is thus merely the paraphrase of an authoritative prophecy on the same subject.]

VE Nymphs of Solyma! begin the song:

YE

To heav'nly themes sublimer strains belong.
The mossy fountains, and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids,
Delight no more-O thou my voice inspire
Who touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire!
Rapt into future times, the Bard begun:
A Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son!
From Jesse's root behold a branch arise,
Whose sacred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies:
Th' Ethereal spirit o'er its leaves shall move,
And on its top descends the mystic Dove.
Ye Heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in soft silence shed the kindly show'r!
The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid,
From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade.
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud 5 shall fail;
Returning Justice lift aloft her scale;

Peace o'er the World her olive wand extend,
And white-rob'd Innocence from heav'n descend.
Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected morn!
Oh spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born!
See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing spring:
See lofty7 Lebanon his head advance,
See nodding forests on the mountains dance:
See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise,
And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way! a God, a God appears:
A God, a God! the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down ye mountains, and ye valleys rise,
With heads declin'd, ye cedars homage pay;
Be smooth ye rocks, ye rapid floods give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold:
Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray1o,
And on the sightless eye-ball pour the day:
'Tis he th' obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear:
The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No sigh, no murmur the wide world shall hear,
From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear.
In adamantinell chains shall Death be bound,
And Hell's grim Tyrant feel th' eternal wound.

[Hierosolyma, Jerusalem.]

2 Isa. xi. I.

4 ch. xxv. 4.

3 ch. xlv. 8.

9 ch. xlii. 18; xxxv. 5, 6.

10 He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,] The sense and language shew, that, by

5 ancient fraud] i.e. the fraud of the Serpent visual ray, the poet meant the sight, or, as

Warburton.

7 ch. xxxv. 2.

6 ch. ix. 7.

8 ch. xl. 3, 4.

Milton calls it, the visual nerve. Warburton. 11 ch. xxv. 8.

As the good shepherd1 tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air,
Explores the lost, the wand'ring sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects,
The tender lambs he raises in his arms,

Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms;
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promis'd father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriours meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a plough-share end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful Son*
Shall finish what his short-liv'd Sire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,

And the same hand that sow'd, shall reap the field.
The swain in barren deserts5 with surprise

See lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise;
And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,

כן

The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn:

To leafless shrubs the flow'ring palms succeed,

75

And od'rous myrtle to the noisome weed.

The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead;

The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,

8

And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleas'd the green lustre of the scales survey,

And with their forky tongues shall innocently play.
Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem', rise!
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes!
See, a long race 10 thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons, and daughters yet unborn,

In crowding ranks on ev'ry side arise,

Demanding life, impatient for the skies!

See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,

90

Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;

See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,

And heap'd with products of Sabæan 12 springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.