Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/15

Which, since refus'd, ungen'rous Man, give o'er
To boast thy Race; Europa never bore
A thing so savage. Thee some Tygress bred,
On the bleak Syrt's inhospitable Bed;
Or where Charybdis pours its rapid Tide
Tempestuous. Thou art not to Jove ally'd;
Nor did the King of Gods thy Mother meet
Beneath a Bull's forg'd Shape, and bear to Crete.
That Fable of thy glorious Birth is feign'd;
Some wild outrageous Bull thy Dam sustain'd.
O Father Nisus, now my Death behold;
Exult, O City, by my Baseness sold:
Minos, obdurate, has aveng'd ye all;
But 'twere more just by those I wrong'd to fall:
For why shou'dst thou, who only didst subdue
By my offending, my Offence pursue?
Well art thou matcht to one whose am'rous Flame
Too fiercely rag'd, for Human kind to tame;
One who, within a wooden Heifer thrust,
Courted a lowering Bull's mistaken Lust;
And, from whose Monster-teeming Womb, the Earth
Receiv'd, what much it mourn'd, a bi-form Birth.
But what avail my Plaints? the whistling Wind,
Which bears him far away, leaves them behind.
Well weigh'd Pasiphaë, when she prefer'd
A Bull to thee, more brutish than the Herd.
But ah! Time presses, and the labour'd Oars
To Distance drive the Fleet, and lose the less'ning Shores.
Think not, ungrateful Man, the liquid Way
And threat'ning Billows shall inforce my Stay.
I'll follow thee in Spite; My Arms I'll throw
Around thy Oars, or grasp thy crooked Prow,
And drag thro' drenching Seas. Her eager Tongue
Had hardly clos'd the Speech, when forth she sprung
And prov'd the Deep. Cupid with added Force
Recruits each Nerve, and aids her wat'ry Course.

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