Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/184

I saw, I perish'd; yet indulg'd my Pain:
Begin with me, my Flute, the sweet Mænalian Strain.

I know thee, Love; in Desarts thou wert bred;60
And at the Dugs of Salvage Tygers fed:
Alien of Birth, Usurper of the Plains:
Begin with me, my Flute, the sweet Mænalian Strains.

Relentless Love the cruel Mother led,
The Blood of her unhappy Babes to shed:65
Love lent the Sword; the Mother struck the blow;
Inhuman she; but more inhuman thou.
Alien of Birth, Usurper of the Plains:
Begin with me, my Flute, the sweet Mænalian Strains.

Old doting Nature change thy Course anew:70
And let the trembling Lamb the Wolf pursue:
Let Oaks now glitter with Hesperian Fruit,
And purple Daffodils from Alder shoot.
Fat Amber let the Tamarisk distil:
And hooting Owls contend with Swans in Skill.75
Hoarse Tity'rus strive with Orpheus in the Woods:
And challenge fam'd Arion on the Floods.
Or, oh! let Nature cease; and Chaos reign:
Begin with me, my Flute, the sweet Mænalian Strain.

Let Earth be Sea; and let the whelming Tide,80
The lifeless Limbs of luckless Damon hide: