Behold a Prodigy! for from within800
The broken Bowels, and the bloated Skin,
A buzzing noise of Bees their Ears alarms,
Straight issue thro' the Sides assembling Swarms:
Dark as a Cloud they make a wheeling Flight,
Then on a neighb'ring Tree, descending, light:805
Like a large Cluster of black Grapes they show,
And make a large dependance from the Bough.
Thus have I sung of Fields, and Flocks, and Trees,
And of the waxen Work of lab'ring Bees;
While mighty Cæsar, thund'ring from afar,810
Seeks on Euphrates Banks the Spoils of War:
With conqu'ring Arts asserts his Country's Cause,
With Arts of Peace the willing People draws:
On the glad Earth the Golden Age renews,
And his great Father's Path to Heav'n pursues.815
While I at Naples pass my peaceful Days,
Affecting Studies of less noisy Praise;
And bold, thro' Youth, beneath the Beechen Shade,
The Lays of Shepherds, and their Loves have plaid.
The End of the First Volume.
