go

'Mong men, are pleasures real as real may be:

But there are higher ones I may not see, If impiously an earthly realm I take. Since I saw thee, I have been wide awake Night after night, and day by day, until Of the empyrean I have drunk my fill. Let it content thee, Sister, seeing me More happy than betides mortality.

A hermit young, I'll live in mossy cave, 860 Where thou alone shalt come to me, and lave

Thy spirit in the wonders I shall tell. Through me the shepherd realm shall pro

sper well;

For to thy tongue will I all health confide.
And, for my sake, let this young maid abide
With thee as a dear sister. Thou alone,
Peona, mayst return to me. I own
This may sound strangely: but when, dear-

As feels a dreamer what doth most create

His own particular fright, so these three felt:

890

Why stand we here? Adieu, ye tender pair! Adieu !'

Whereat those maidens, with wild stare,

Walk'd dizzily away. Pained and hot
His eyes went after them, until they got
Near to a cypress grove, whose deadly

maw,

In self-commitment, thus that meek unknown:

'Aye, but a buzzing by my ears has flown,
Of jubilee to Dian: - truth I heard!
Well then, I see there is no little bird,
Tender soever, but is Jove's own care.
Long have I sought for rest, and, unaware,

saw

Careful and soft, that not a leaf may fall
Before the serene father of them all
Bows down his summer head below the
west.

930

possest,