Page:Elegiac Sonnets and Other Essays The Second Edition.pdf/29

[  15    ] HEN Jove, in anger to the sons of earth,
 * Bid artful give  birth,

And sent the fatal gift, which spread below O'er all the wretched race contagious woe, Unhappy man, by vice and folly tost,Found in the storms of life his quiet lost, While Envy, Av'rice, and Ambition, hurl'd Discord and death around the warring world; Then the blest: peasant left his fields and fold, And barter'd love and peace for power and gold;Left his calm cottage, and his native plain, In search of wealth to tempt the faithless main; Or, braving danger, in the battle flood, And hath'd his savage hands in human blood: No longer then, his woodland walks among,The shepherd lad his genuine passion sung, Or