Such as the shrub to the tall olive shows, Or the pale swallow to the blushing rose; Such is his voice, if I can judge aright, Compared to thine, in sweetness and in height. MOPSUS. No more, but sit and hear the promised lay; The gloomy grotto makes a doubtful day. The nymphs about the breathless body wait Of Daphnis, and lament his cruel fate. The trees and floods were witness to their tears; At length the rumour reached his mother's ears. The wretched parent, with a pious haste, Came running, and his lifeless limbs embraced. She sighed, she sobbed; and, furious with despair, } She rent her garments, and she tore her hair, } Accusing all the gods, and every star. } The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink Of running waters brought their herds to drink. The thirsty cattle, of themselves, abstained From water, and their grassy fare disdained. The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore; } They cast the sound to Libya's desert shore; } The Libyan lions hear, and hearing roar. } Fierce tigers Daphnis taught the yoke to bear, And first with curling ivy dressed the spear. Daphnis did rites to Bacchus first ordain, And holy revels for his reeling train. As vines the trees, as grapes the vines adorn, As bulls the herds, and fields the yellow corn; So bright a splendour, so divine a grace, The glorious Daphnis cast on his illustrious race. When envious Fate the godlike Daphnis took, Our guardian gods the fields and plains forsook; Pales no longer swelled the teeming grain, Nor Phoebus fed his oxen on the plain; No fruitful crop the sickly fields return, But oats and darnel choke the rising corn; And where the vales with violets once were crowned, Now knotty burrs and thorns disgrace the ground. Come, shepherds, come, and strow with leaves the plain; Such funeral rites your Daphnis did ordain. With cypress-boughs the crystal fountains hide, And softly let the running waters glide. A lasting monument to Daphnis raise, With this inscription to record his praise:-- "Daphnis, the fields' delight, the shepherds' love, Renowned on earth, and deified above; Whose flock excelled the fairest on the plains, But less than he himself surpassed the swains." MENALCAS.