So had my Ceyx ftill been living here,
Or with my Ceyx I had perish'd there :
Now I die abfent, in the vaft profound;
And me without myself the feas have drown'd':
The ftorms were not fo cruel; fhould I ftrive
To lengthen life, and fuch a grief furvive;
But neither will I ftrive, nor wretched thee
In death forfake, but keep thee company.
If not one common fepulchre contains
Our bodies, or one urn our laft remains,
Yet Ceyx and Alcyone fháll join,
Their names remember'd in one common line.
No farther voice her mighty grief affords,
For fighs come rufhing in betwixt her words,
And stopt her tongue; but what her tongue deny'd,
Soft tears and groans, and dumb complaints fupply'd.
'Twas morning; to the port fhe takes her way,
And ftands upon the margin of the fea :
That place, that very fpot of ground fhe fought,
Or thither by her deftiny was brought,
Where laft he food and while fhe fadly faid,
'Twas here he left me, lingering here delay'd
His parting kiss; and there his anchors weigh'd;
Thus fpeaking, while her thoughts paft actions trace,
And call to mind, admonish'd by the place,
Sharp at her utmost ken she caft her eyes,
And fomewhat floating from afar defcries;
It seem'd a corpse adrift, to distant fight,
But at a distance who could judge aright
It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew
That what before the but furmis'd, was true:
A corpfe it was, but whofe it was, unknown,
Yet mov'd, howe'er, fhe made the cafe her own:
Took the bad omen of a fhipwreck'd man,
As for a ftranger wept, and thus began :
Poor wretch, on formy feas to lofe thy life,
Unhappy thou, but more thy widow'd wife!
At this fhe paus'd; for now the flowing tide
Had brought the body nearer to the fide:
The more the looks, the more her fears increafe,
At nearer fight; and the 's herfelf the lefs:
Now driven afhore, and at her feet it lies,
She knows too much, in knowing whom the fees:
Her husband's corpfe; at this the loudly fhrieks,
'Tis he, 'tis he, he cries, and tears her cheeks,
Her hair, her veft, and, ftooping to the fands,
About his neck the caft her trembling hands.
And is it thus, O dearer than my life,
Thus, thus return'ft thou to thy longing wife!
She faid, and to the neighbouring mole the frode
(Rais'd there to break th' incurâons of the flood);
Headlong from hence to plunge herself the fprings,
But fhoots along fupported on her wings;
A bird new-made about the banks fhe plies,
Not far from flore, and fhort excurfions tries;
Nor feeks in air her humble flight to raise,
Content to fkim the furface of the feas;
Her bill, though flender, fends a creaking noife,
And imitates a lamentable voice:
F 2
Now lighting where the bloodless body lies,
She with a funeral note renews her cries.
At all her stretch her little wings she spread,
And with her feather'd arms embrac'd the dead:
Then, flickering to his pallid lips, she strove
To print a kifs, the laft effay of love:
Whether the vital touch reviv'd the dead,
Or that the moving waters rais'd his head
To meet the kiss, the vulgar doubt alone;
For fure a prefent miracle was shown.
The Gods their shapes to winter-birds translate,
But both obnoxious to their former fate.
Their conjugal affection still is ̧ty'd,
And fill the mournful race is multiply'd ;
They bill, they tread; Alcyone compress'd
Seven days fits brooding on her floating neft:
A wintery queen: her fire at length is kind,
Calms every storm, and hushes every wind:
Prepares his empire for his daughter's ease,
And for his hatching nephews imooths the feas.
SACUS transformed into a CORMORANT.
From the ELEVENTH Book of
THESE fome old man sees wanton in the air,
And praises the unhappy conftant pair.
Then to his friend the long-neck'd cormorant shows,
The former tale reviving others woes :
That fable bird, he cries, which cuts the flood
With flender legs, was once of royal blood;
His ancestors from mighty Tros proceed,
The brave Laomedon, and Ganymede
(Whose beauty tempted Jove to steal the boy),
And Priam, hapless prince! who fell with Troy :
Himself was Hector's brother, and (had fate
But given this hopeful youth a longer date)
Perhaps had rival'd warlike Hector's worth,
Though on the mother's fide of meaner birth;
Fair Alyxothoë, a country maid,
facus by stealth in Ida's shade.
He fled the noify town, and pompous court,
Lov'd the lone hills, and simple rural sport,
And seldom to the city would resort.
Yet he no rustic clownishness profeft,
Nor was soft love a stranger to his breast:
The youth had long the nymph Hefperia woo'd,
Oft through the thicket or the mead pursued ;
Her haply on her father's bank he spy'd,
While fearless fhe her filver trefics dry'd;
Away he fled not ftags with half such speed,
Before the prowling wolf, fcud o'er the mead;
Not ducks, when they the safer flood forsake,
Purfued by hawks, so swift regain the lake.
As faft he follow'd in the hot career:
Defire the lover wing'd, the virgin fear.
A fnake unfeen now pierc'd her heedless foot;
Quick through the veins the venom'd juices fhoot:
She fell, and 'fcap'd by death his fierce purfuit.
Her lifeless body, frighted, he embrac❜d,
And cry'd, Not this I dreaded, but thy hafte :
O had my love been lefs, or lefs thy fear!
The victory thus bought is far too dear.
Accurfed fnake! yet I more curs'd than he!
He gave the wound; the caufe was given by me.
Yet none fhall fay, that unreveng'd you dy'd.
He fpoke; then climb'd a cliff's o'er-hanging fide,
And, refolute, leap'd on the foaming tide.
Tethys receiv'd him gently on the wave;
The death he fought deny'd, and feathers gave.
Debarr'd the fureft remedy of grief,
And forc'd to live, he curft th' unafk'd relief.
Then on his airy pinions upward flies,
And at a fecond fall fuccefslefs tries:
The downy plume a quick descent denies.
Enrag'd, he often dives beneath the wave,
And there in vain expects to find a grave.
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