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V.77-78

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Come thou, my Friend! my Genius! come along;

Oh, master of the poet, and the song;

And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends

To man's low passions or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee, in various Nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise-
Oh! while along the stream of time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
Shall then this Verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend?
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light,
Shew'd erring Pride, whatever is is right----
That virtue only makes our bliss below,
And all our knowledge is ourselves to know.

ESS. ON MAN.

LONDON:

Printed for, and under the Direction of,

G. CAWTHORN, British Library, STRAND.

M DCC XCVI.

Andræmon lov'd; and bless'd in all those charms
That pleas'd a god, succeeded to her arms.

A lake there was with shelving banks around,
Whose verdant summit fragrant myrtles crown'd;
These shades, unknowing of the Fates, she sought,
And to the Naiads flow'ry garlands brought;
Her smiling babe (a pleasing charge) she prest
Within her arms, and nourish'd at her breast.
Not distant far a watʼry lotos grows;

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The spring was new, and all the verdant boughs,
Adorn'd with blossoms, promised fruits that vie
In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye:

Of these she cropp'd to please her infant son,
And I myself the same rash act had done;
But, lo! I saw (as near her side I stood)
The violated blossoms drop with blood;

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Excipit Andræmon; et habetur conjuge felix.
Est lacus acclivi devexo margine formam
Litoris efficiens: summum myrteta coronant.
Venerat huc Dryope, fatorum nescia; quoque
Indignere magis, nymphis latura coronas.

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Inque sinu puerum, qui nondum impleverat annum,
Dulce ferebat onus; tepidique ope lactis alebat.
Haud procul a stagno, Tyrios imitata colores,
In spem baccharum florebat aquatica lotos.
Carpserat hinc Dryope, quos oblectamina nato
Porrigeret flores: et idem factura videbar
(Namque aderam.) Vidi guttas e flore cruentas

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Upon the tree I cast a frightful look;

The trembling tree with sudden horror shook.
Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true)
As from Priapus' lawless lust she flew,
Forsook her form; and, fixing here, became
A flow'ry plant, which still preserves her name.
This change unknown, astonish'd at the sight
My trembling sister strove to urge her flight;
And first the pardon of the nymphs implor'd,
And the offended sylvan pow'rs ador'd:

But when she backward would have fled, she found
Her stiff'ning feet were rooted in the ground:
In vain to free her fasten'd feet she strove,
And as she struggles only moves above;
She feels th' encroaching bark around her grow
By quick degrees, and cover all below.

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Surpriz'd at this, her trembling hand she heaves
To rend her hair; her hand is fill'd with leaves:

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Decidere, et tremulo ramos horrore moveri.

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Scilicet, ut referunt tardi nunc denique agrestes,
Lotis in hanc nymphe, fugiens obscœna Priapi,
Contulerat versos servato nomine vultus.

Nescierat soror hoc; quæ cum perterrita retro
Ire, et adoratis vellet discedere nymphis,

Hæserunt radice pedes. Convellere pugnat:

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Nec quidquam, nisi summa, movet. Succrescit ab imo,
Totaque paulatim lentus premit inguina cortex.
Ut vidit, conata manu laniare capillos,

Where late was hair, the shooting leaves are seen

To rise and shade her with a sudden green.
The child Amphissus, to her bosom prest,
Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breast,

And found the springs, that ne'er till then deny'd
Their milky moisture, on a sudden dry'd.

I saw, unhappy! what I now relate,

And stood the helpless witness of thy fate,

Embrac'd thy boughs, thy rising bark delay'd,

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There wish'd to grow, and mingle shade with shade!
Behold Andræmon and th' unhappy sire

Appear, and for their Dryope inquire;
A springing tree for Dryope they find,

And print warm kisses on the panting rind.
Prostrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And close embrace as to the roots they grew.

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Fronde manum implevit : frondes caput omne tenebant
At puer Amphissos (namque hoc avus Eurytus illi
Addiderat nomen) materna rigescere sentit
Ubera: nec sequitur ducentem lacteus humor. 50
Spectatrix aderam fati crudelis, opemque
Non poteram tibi ferre, soror: quantumque valebam,
Crescentem truncum ramosque amplexa, morabar;
Et (fateor) volui sub eodem cortice condi.

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Ecce vir Andræmon, genitorque miserrimus, adsunt;
Et quærunt Dryopen; Dryopen quærentibus illis
Ostendi Loton. tepido dant oscula ligno:
Affusique suæ radicibus arboris hærent.

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