Or mourner-cypress spreads a shade,
Or plant of Daphne, hapless maid!
Yet 'midst the melancholy night,
Some scatter'd honours give delight,
And here and there a rose is found
Neglected on the chilly ground,
And a chance-lily sheds its snow
Beneath the darker shrubs of woe.
Oh, not as erst, thou modest wreath,
Shalt thou of all thy fragrance breathe!
Oh, not as erst, when Genius knew
To give thy colours to the view,
And Taste was ready to display
The flow'rs that fell in fancy's way!
An Iron age hath nipp'd thee sore,
While cold neglect thy honours tore.
For zephyrs soft that fann'd thy youth,
How wilt thou meet the gale uncouth?
Torn from a genial Summer's smile,
How wilt thou bear a northern isle?
Far from thy home and native sky,
Meek stranger, wilt thou live or die?
CLARISSA, when she loos'd her virgin zone,
Found in the nuptial bed an early grave;
Death claimed the bridegroom's right; to death alone
The treasure, promis'd to her spouse, she gave.
To sweetest sounds the happy evening fled,
The Flute's soft strain and hymeneal choir;
At morn sad howlings echo round the bed,
And the glad hymns on quivering lips expire.
The very torches that, at fall of night,
Shed their bright radiance o'er the bridal room, Those very torches, with the morning's light, Conduct the lovely sufferer to her tomb.
Sea-wandering barks that o'er the Ægean sail
With pennants streaming to the northern gale,
If in your course the Coan land ye reach,
And see my Thyrza musing on the beach,
With eye intent upon the placid sea,
And constant heart that only beats for me,
Tell my sweet Mistress that for her I haste
To greet her, landing from the watery waste.
Go, heralds of my soul, to Thyrza's ear
In all your shrouds the tender accents bear;
Great Jove shall calm with smiles the wave below,
And bid for you the softest breezes blow.
Tears o'er my parted Thyrza's grave I shed,
Affection's fondest tribute to the dead.
Oh, flow, my bitter sorrows, o'er her shrine,
Pledge of the love that bound her soul to mine!
Break, break my heart, o'ercharged with bursting woe,
An empty offering to the shades below!
Ah, plant regretted! Death's remorseless power
With dust unfruitful choaked thy full-blown flower.
Take, earth, the gentle inmate to thy breast,
And, soft-embosomed, bid my Thyrza rest.
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