Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/84

50

ARCISSUS hight a youth beset

By Love, and snared within his net;

Who thereby so great sufferance felt

As lastly caused his soul to melt

In tears, and render up the ghost;

For him fair Echo’s soul was lost

In love that reason’s voice defied,

And she, o’ercome with passion, cried:

“O shouldest thou disdain to give

To me thy love, I scorn to live.”

Then he, (self-loving fool, and vain

Of heart,) regarded nought her pain,

But scoffed at every fond caress,

And spurned her proffered tenderness;

Until, despairing, day by day

She wasted, pined and waned away

For love of him: but as in air

Her spirit passed, she made her prayer

To God, that this Narcissus’ hard

Unpitying heart might e’en be scarred,

Like hers, with love unsatisfied,

To recompense his cruel pride,