Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/230

212 Amaz'd, within my secret Self I sought, What God, what Herb the Miracle had wrought: But sure no Herbs have Pow'r like this, I cry'd; And strait I pluck'd some neighb'ring Herbs, and try'd. Scarce had I bit, and prov'd the wond'rous Taste, When strong Convulsions shook my troubled Breast; I felt my Heart grow fond of something strange, And my whole Nature lab'ring with a Change. Restless I grew, and ev'ry Place forsook, And still upon the Seas I bent my Look. Farewel for ever! Farewel, Land! I said; And plung'd amidst the Waves my sinking Head. The gentle Pow'rs, who that low Empire keep, Receiv'd me as a Brother of the Deep; To Tethys, and to Ocean old, they pray To purge my mortal Earthy Parts away. The watry Parents to their Suit agreed, And thrice nine times a secret Charm they read. Then with Lustrations purify my Limbs, And bid me bath beneath a hundred Streams: A hundred Streams from various Fountains run, And on my Head at once come rushing down. Thus far each Passage I remember well, And faithfully thus far the Tale I tell; But then Oblivion dark, on all my Senses fell. Again at length my Thought reviving came, When I no longer found my self the same; Then first this Sea-green Beard I felt to grow, And these large Honours on my spreading Brow; My long descending Locks the Billows sweep, And my broad Shoulders cleave the yielding Deep; My Fishy Tail, my Arms of Azure Hue, And ey'ry Part divinely chang'd, I view. But