It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew
That what before the but furmis'd, was true:
A corpfe it was, but whose it was, unknown,
Yet mov'd, howe'er, the made the cafe her own:
Took the bad omen of a shipwreck’d man,
As for a stranger wept, and thus began :
Poor wretch, on ftormy feas to lose thy life,
Unhappy thou, but more thy widow'd wife !
At this the paus'd; for now the flowing tide
Had brought the body nearer to the side:
The more she looks, the more her fears increase,
At nearer fight; and she's herself 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 fhe loudly fhrieks,
'Tis he, 'tis he, the 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 she strode
(Rais'd there to break th' incurfions of the flood);
Headlong from hence to plunge herself she springs,
But fhoots along supported on her wings;
A bird new-made about the banks fhe plies,
Not far from fhore, 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 noise,
And imitates a lamentable voice:
Now lighting where the bloodless body lies,
She with a funeral note renews her cries.
At all her ftretch her little wings she spread,
And with her feather'd arms embrac'd the dead:
Then, flickering to his pallid lips, the ftrove
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 still 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 fmooths the feas.
ESACUS transformed into a CORMORANT.
From the ELEVENTH Book of
HESE fome old man fees 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,
Bare Æsacus by stealth in Ida's shade.
He fled the noisy town, and pompous court,
Lov'd the lone hills, and fimple rural sport,
And seldom to the city would resort.
Yet he no ruftic clownifhnefs profest,
Nor was foft love a stranger to his breast:
The youth had long the nymph Hefperia woo'd,
Oft through the thicket or the mead purfued:
Her haply on her father's bank he spy'd,
While fearless she her filyer treffes dry'd;
Away she filed: not ftags with half such speed,
Before the prowling wolf, fcud o'er the mead ;
Not ducks, when they the fafer flood forfake,
Pursued by hawks, fo fwift 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 shoot:
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 haste :
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 cause was given by me.
Yet none fhall fay, that unreveng'd you dy'd.
He spoke; 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 curst th' unask'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.
His ceafelefs forrow for th' unhappy maid
Meager'd his look, and on his spirits prey'd.
Still near the founding deep he lives; his name
From frequent diving and emerging came.
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