Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/130

"And saw the monstrous Infant in a Fright,
"And call'd her Sisters to the hideous Sight:
"A Boy's soft Shape did to the Waste prevail,
"But the Boy ended in a Dragon's Tail.
"I told the stern Minerva all that pass'd,
"But for my Pains, discarded and disgrac'd,
"The frowning Goddess drove me from her Sight,
"And for her Fav'rite chose the Bird of Night.
"Be then no Tell-Tale; for I think my Wrong
"Enough to teach a Bird to hold her Tongue.
"But you, perhaps, may think I was remov'd,
"As never by the heav'nly Maid belov'd:
"But I was lov'd; ask Pallas if I lye;
"Tho' Pallas hate me now, she won't deny:
"For I, whom in a feather'd Shape you view,$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
"Was once a Maid (by Heav'n the Story's true)
"A blooming Maid, and a King's Daughter too.
"A Crowd of Lovers own'd my Beauty's Charms
"My Beauty was the cause of all my Harms;
"Neptune, as on his Shores I wont to rove,
"Observ'd me in my Walks, and fell in Love.
"He made his Courtship, he confess'd his Pain,
"And offer'd Force when all his Arts were vain;
"Swift he pursu'd: I ran along the Strand,
"Till, spent and weary'd on the sinking Sand,
"I shriek'd aloud, with Cries I fill'd the Air$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
"To Gods and Men; nor God nor Man was there:
"A Virgin Goddess heard a Virgin's Pray'r.
"For, as my Arms I lifted to the Skies,
"I saw Black Feathers from my Fingers rise;
"I strove to fling my Garment on the Ground;
"My Garment turn'd to Plumes, and girt me round:
"My Hands to beat my naked Bosom try;
"Nor Naked Bosom now nor Hands had I:
"Lightly I tript, nor weary as before
"Sunk in the Sand, but skim'd along the Shore;

"Till,