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So had my Ceyx ftill been living here,
Or with my Ceyx I had perish'd there:
Now 1 die absent, in the vaft profound;
And me without myself the feas have drown'd
The storms were not fo cruel; should I strive
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 fhall join,
Their names remember'd in one common line.
No farther voice her mighty grief affords,
For fighs come rushing 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 she takes her way,
And stands upon the margin of the fea :

That place, that very spot of ground the fought,
Or thither by her deftiny was brought,

Where last he flood: and while the fadly faid,
'Twas here he left me, lingering here delay'd
His parting kifs; 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 utmoft ken fhe caft her eyes,
And fomewhat floating from afar defcries;
It feem'd a corpfe adrift, to diftant fight,
But at a distance who could judge aright?

It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew

That what before fhe but furmis'd, was true:
A corpfe it was, but whose it was, unknown,
Yet mov'd, howe'er, fhe 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 fide:
The more fhe looks, the more her fears increafe,
At nearer fight; and the 's herself the less:
Now driven afhore, and at her feet it lies,

She knows too much, in knowing whom fhe fees:
Her husband's corpfe; at this fhe loudly fhrieks,
'Tis he, 'tis he, fhe cries, and tears her cheeks,
Her hair, her veft, and, stooping to the fands,
About his neck she cast 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 fhe ftrode
(Rais'd there to break th' incurfions of the flood);
Headlong from hence to plunge herself the springs,
But fhoots along fupported on her wings;
A bird new-made about the banks the 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 noise,
And imitates a lamentable voice:
F 2

Now

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 ftill the mournful race is multiply'd;
They bill, they tread; Alcyone compress'd
Seven days fits brooding on her floating nest :
A wintery queen her fire at length is kind,
Calms every ftorm, and hushes every wind:
Prepares his empire for his daughter's cafe,
And for his hatching nephews fmooths the feas.

SACUS

ESACUS transformed into a CORMORANT.

From the ELEVENTH BOOK of

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

T

HESE fome old man fees wanton in the air,
And praifes 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 fteal 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

facus by stealth in Ida's fhade.

He fled the noify town, and pompous court,
Lov'd the lone hills, and fimple rural fport,
And feldom to the city would refort.
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 pursued :

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Her haply on her father's bank he spy'd,
While fearless she her filver treffes dry'd;

Away fhe fled: not ftags with half such speed,
Before the prowling wolf, scud o'er the mead;
Not ducks, when they the fafer flood forfake,
Pursued 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 shoot:
She fell, and 'cap'd by death his fierce pursuit.
Her lifeless body, frighted, he embrac'd,
And cry'd, Not this I dreaded, but thy haste :
O had my love been lefs, or leís 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 surest remedy of grief,

And forc'd to live, he curft th' unask'd relief.
Then on his airy pinions upward flies,
And at a fecond fall fuccefslefs tries:
The downy plume a quick defcent denies.
Enrag'd, he often dives beneath the wave,
And there in vain expects to find a grave.

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