ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE.

Seven hapless months he wept his fatal love,
His ravish'd bride, and blamed relentless Jove.
Stern tigers soften'd at the tuneful sound,

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The thickets move, the forests dance around:
So in some poplar's shade, with soothing song
Sad Philomela mourns her captive young,
When some rude swain hath found th' unfeather'd
Her nest despoil'd and borne the prize away; [prey,
Through the long night she breathes her tuneful strain,
The slow, deep moan resounds, and echoes o'er the
plain.

Pleasure no more his soul estranged could move, The charms of beauty, or the joys of love.

Alone he stray'd where freezing Tanais flows Through drear wastes, wedded to perennial snows,

Flevisse, & gelidis hæc evolvisse sub antris,
Mulcentem tigres, & agentem carmine quercus.
Qualis populea morens Philomela sub umbra
Amissos queritur fœtus, quos durus arator
Observans nido implumes, detraxit; at illa
Flet noctem, ramoq; sedens miserabile carmen
Integrat, & moestis late loca questibus implet.
Nulla Venus, nulliq; animum flexere hymenæi.
Solus Hyperboreas glacies, Tanaimq; nivalem,

Mourn'd his lost bride, th' infernal power's deceit, And cursed the vain, illusive gifts of fate.

When Bacchus' orgies stain'd the midnight skies,
Their proffers scorn'd, the Thracian matrons rise.
Their hopeless rage the bleeding victim tore,
His sever'd limbs are scatter'd on the shore,
Rent from his breathless corse, swift Hebrus sweeps
His gory visage to the opening deeps.

Yet when cold death sate trembling on his tongue,
With fainting soul, Eurydice, he sung;
Ah dearest, lost Eurydice! he cries;
Eurydice, the plaintive shore replies.

Arvaque Riphæis nunquam viduata pruinis,
Lustrabat; raptam Eurydicen, atq; irrita Ditis
Dona querens: spreto Ciconum quo munere matres,
Inter sacra Deum, nocturniq; orgia Bacchi,
Discerptum latos juvenem sparsere per agros.
Tum quoq; marmorea caput a cervice revulsum,
Gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus
Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa & frigida lingua,
Ah miseram Eurydicen, anima fugiente, vocabat;
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripæ.

THE PROPHECY OF BALAAM.

THE PROPHECY OF BALAAM.

NUMBERS, Chapters 23d and 24th.

December 1773.

I.

ON lofty Peor's brow,

That rears its forehead to the sky,
And sees the airy vapors fly,

And clouds in bright expansion sail below,

Sublime the Prophet stood.

Beneath its pine-clad side,

The distant world her varied landscape yields;

Winding vales and length'ning fields,
Streams in sunny maze that flow'd,
Stretch'd immense in prospect wide,

Forests green in summer's pride.

Waving glory gilds the main,

The dazzling sun ascending high,

While earth's blue verge, at distance dimly seen, Spreads from the aching sight, and fades into the sky.