Page:Poetical Works of the Right Hon. Geo. Granville.djvu/61

With proper arts their ſickly minds command,35
And pleaſe ’em with the things they underſtand:
With noiſy fopperies their hearts aſſail;
Renounce all ſenſe: how should thy ſongs prevail
When I, the god of Wit, ſo oft could fail?
Remember me; and in my ſtory find40
How vainly merit pleads to womankind.
I, by whom all things ſhine, who tune the ſpheres,
Create the day, and gild the night with ſtars,
Whoſe youth and beauty from all ages paſt
Sprang with the world, and with the world ſhall laſt,45
How oft with fruitleſs tears have I implor’d
Ungrateful nymphs? and, tho’ a god, ador’d!
When could my wit, my beauty, or my youth,
Move a hard heart? or, mov’d, ſecure its truth?
Here a proud nymph with painful ſteps I chaſe,50
The winds outflying in our nimble race:
Stay, Daphne! ſtay—In vain, in vain, I try
To ſtop her ſpeed, redoubling at my cry:
O’er craggy rocks and rugged hills ſhe climbs,
And tears on pointed flints her tender limbs,55
Till caught at length, juſt as my arms I fold,
Turn’d to a tree, ſhe yet eſcapes my hold.
In my next love a diff’rent fate I find:
Ah! which is worſe, the falſe or the unkind?
Forgetting Daphne, I Coronis choſe,60
A kinder nymph—too kind for my repoſe.