Then frantic rise, and like some Fury rove
Through lonely plains, and through the silent grove,
As if the silent grove, and lonely plains,

That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains.
I view the grotto, once the scene of love,
The rocks around, the hanging roofs above,
That charm'd me more, with native moss o'ergrown,
Than Phrygian marble, or the Parian stone;
I find the shades that veil'd our joys before;
But, Phaon gone, those shades delight no more.
Here the press'd herbs with bending tops betray
Where oft entwin'd in am'rous folds we lay; 170
I kiss that earth which once was press'd by you,
And all with tears the withering herbs bedew.
For thee the fading trees appear to mourn,
And birds defer their songs till thy return:
Night shades the groves, and all in silence lie, 175
All but the mournful Philomel and I :
With mournful Philomel I join my strain,
Of Tereus she, of Phaon I complain.

A spring there is, whose silver waters show,
Clear as a glass, the shining sands below :
A flow'ry Lotos spreads its arms above,
Shades all the banks, and seems itself a grove;
Eternal greens the mossy margin grace,
Watch'd by the sylvan Genius of the place:

NOTES.

180

Ver. 160. Through lonely plains,] Antra nemusque are not well rendered by "through lonely plains, &c." Ovid is concise and specific, Pope general.

Bowles.

Hic ego cum lassos posuissem fletibus artus, 185 Constitit ante oculos Naïas una meos.

Constitit, et dixit, "Quoniam non ignibus æquis "Ureris, Ambracias terra petenda tibi. "Phœbus ab excelso, quantum patet,aspicit æquor: "Actiacum populi Leucadiumque vocant. Hinc se Deucalion Pyrrhæ succensus amore "Misit, et illæso corpore pressit aquas. "Nec mora: versus Amor tetigit lentissima Pyrrhæ

"Pectora; Deucalion igne levatus erat.

195

"Hanc legem locus ille tenet, pete protinus altam "Leucadia; nec saxo desiluisse time."

Ut monuit, cum voce abiit. Ego frigida surgo: 200 Nec gravidæ lacrymas continuere genæ.

Here as I lay, and swell'd with tears the flood, 185 Before my sight a wat'ry Virgin stood:

She stood and cry'd, "O you that love in vain!

66

Fly hence, and seek the fair Leucadian main; "There stands a rock, from whose impending steep

66

190

Apollo's fane surveys the rolling deep; "There injur'd lovers, leaping from above, "Their flames extinguish, and forget to love. "Deucalion once with hopeless fury burn'd, "In vain he lov'd, relentless Pyrrha scorn'd: "But when from hence he plung'd into the main, "Deucalion scorn'd, and Pyrrha lov'd in vain. Haste, Sappho, haste, from high Leucadia throw Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below!" She spoke, and vanish'd with the voice-I rise, And silent tears fall trickling from my eyes.

66

NOTES.

200

Ver. 188. Leucadian main;] Addison, with his usual exquisite humour, has given, in the 233d Spectator, an account of the persons, male and female, who leaped from the promontory of Leucate into the Ionian sea, in order to cure themselves of the passion of love. Their various characters, and effects of this leap, are described with infinite pleasantry. One hundred and twenty-four males, and one hundred and twenty-six females, took the leap in the 250th Olympiad; out of them one hundred and twenty were perfectly cured. Sappho, arrayed like a Spartan virgin, and her harp in her hand, threw herself from the rock with such intrepidity, as was never before observed in any who had attempted that very dangerous leap; from whence she never rose again, but was said to be changed into a swan as she fell, and was seen hovering in the air in that shape. Alcæus arrived at the promontory of Leucate that very evening, in order to take the leap on her account; but hearing that her body could not be found, he very generously lamented her fall, and is said to have written his 125th ode on that occasion.

Warton.

Ibimus, o Nymphæ, monstrataque saxa petemus.
Sit procul insano victus amore timor.
Quicquid erit, melius quam nunc erit: aura, subito.
Et mea non magnum corpora pondus habent.
Tu quoque, mollis Amor, pennas suppone cadenti:
Ne sim Leucadiæ mortua crimen aquæ.
Inde chelyn Phoebo communia munera ponam :
Et sub ea versus unus et alter erunt.
"Grata lyram posui tibi, Phœbe, poëtria Sappho:
"Convenit illa mihi, convenit illa tibi."

Cur tamen Actiacas miseram me mittis ad oras,
Cum profugum possis ipse referre pedem ?
Tu mihi Leucadia potes esse salubrior unda : 220
Et forma et meritis tu mihi Phoebus eris.
An potes, o scopulis undaque ferocior illa,
Si moriar, titulum mortis habere meæ ?

I

go, ye Nymphs! those rocks and seas to prove ; How much I fear, but ah, how much I love!

205

I go, ye Nymphs, where furious love inspires ;
Let female fears submit to female fires.
To rocks and seas I fly from Phaon's hate,
And hope from seas and rocks a milder fate.
Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow,
And softly lay me on the waves below!
And thou, kind Love, my sinking limbs sustain,
Spread thy soft wings, and waft me o'er the main,
Nor let a Lover's death the guiltless flood profane!
On Phoebus' shrine my harp I'll then bestow,
And this Inscription shall be plac'd below,

"Here she who sung, to him that did inspire,

66

Sappho to Phœbus consecrates her Lyre;

215

"What suits with Sappho, Phoebus, suits with

thee;

"The gift, the giver, and the God agree."
But why, alas, relentless youth, ah! why
To distant seas must tender Sappho fly?
Thy charms than those may far more pow'rful be,
And Phoebus' self is less a God to me.

Ah! canst thou doom me to the rocks and sea,
Oh! far more faithless and more hard than they?

NOTES.

Ver. 207. Ye gentle gales,] These two lines have been quoted as the most smooth and mellifluous in our language; and they are supposed to derive their sweetness and harmony from the mixture of so many Iambics. Pope himself preferred the following line to all he had written, with respect to harmony:

Lo, where Mæotis sleeps, and hardly flowsVOL. II.

R

Warton,