IDYL XXIII.

THE DESPAIRING LOVER.

A YOUTH was love-sick for a maid unkind,
Whose form was blameless, but not so her mind.
She scorned her lover and his suit disdained;
One gentle thought she never entertained.
She knew not Love-what sort of god, what darts
From what a bow he shoots at youthful hearts!
Her lips were strangers to soft gentleness,
And she was difficult of all access.

She had no word to soothe his scorching fire,
No sparkle of the lip; no moist desire

To her bright eyes a dewy lustre lent;

Blushed on her cheek no crimson of consent;
She breathed no word of sighing born-no kiss
That lightens love, and turns its pain to bliss.

S

But as the wild game from his thicket spies
The train of hunters with suspicious eyes,
So she her lover; ever did she turn
Toward him scornful lip, and eye-glance stern.
She was his fate and on her glooming face,
The scorn that burned within her left its trace.
Her colour fled; and every feature shewed

Pale from the rage that in her bosom glowed.
how fair to see!

Yet even so she was

The more she scorned him, still the more loved he.
At last by Cypris scorched without her cure,
He could no more the raging flame endure.
He went and kist her door, and tears he shed,
And 'midst his tears and kisses sadly said :-

"Harsh, cruel girl! stone-heart and pitiless! The nurseling of some savage lioness, Unworthy love! my latest gift I bring, This noose-no more will I thine anger sting. But now I go where thou hast sentenced me— The common road which all reports agree Must at some time by all that live be gone, And where love's cure is found-Oblivion. Ah! could I drink it all, I should not slake My passionate longing: at thy gates I take

My last farewell, thereto commit indeed
My latest sigh. The future I can read
The rose is beautiful, the rose of prime,
But soon it withers at the touch of time;
And beautiful in spring-time to behold
The violet, but ah! it soon grows old;
White are the lilies, but they soon decay;
White is the snow, but soon it melts away;
And beautiful the bloom of virgin youth,
Bnt lives a very little time in sooth.

Thy time will come thou too at last shalt prove,
And weep most bitterly, the flames of love.
But grant, I pray thee, grant my latest prayer;
When thou shalt see me hanging high in air,
E'en at thy door-O pass not heedless by!
But drop a few tears to my memory.
From the harsh thong unloose thy hapless lover,
And from thy limbs a garment take, and cover
The lifeless body, and the last kiss give;
Fear not that haply I may come alive

At thy lip's touch-I cannot live again;

Thy kiss, if given in love, were given in vain!
Hollow a mound to hide my love's sad end,

And thrice on leaving cry, here lie, my friend!'

And, if thou wilt, by thee this word be said, 'Here lies my love, my beautiful is dead.' And let this epitaph mine end recall,

Just at the last I scratch it on thy wall:

'Love slew him: stop and say,— who here is laid Well but not wisely loved a cruel maid.'"

Then in the doorway for its cruel use

He set a stone; he fitted next the noose;

Put in his neck, and eagerly he sped,

Spurning the stone away-and swung there dead.
But when she saw the corse her doorway kept,
She was not moved in spirit, nor she wept:
She felt no ruth, but, scornful to the last,
She spat upon the body, as she past;
And careless went to bathe her and adorn,
Where stood a statue of the god, her scorn.
From the bath's marble edge whereon it stood,
The statue leapt and slew her: with her blood
The water was impurpled, and the sound

Of the girl's dying accent swam around :---
"Ah lovers! she that scorned true love is slain;
Love is revengeful: when loved, love again."

IDYL XXIV.

THE INFANT HERCULES.

ARGUMENT.

In this Idyl the first contest and victory of Hercules is described. While yet an infant he strangles two dragons sent by Hera to destroy him. Alcmena, alarmed at this prodigy, consults the famous seer, Tiresias, who informs her that Hercules is fated in his life-time to obtain the highest renown for extraordinary exploits, and after his death to be numbered among the gods. He desires her to have the dragons burned, and the house purified in the accustomed manner. The poem ends abruptly, and it is thought that the conclusion has been lost.