Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/413

 POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES

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��Venit Idumanii Chloris vicina fiiienti: 90 Nil me blauditise, nil me solantia verba, Nil me si quid adest movet, aut spes ulla

futuri. "Ite domum impasti; domino jam non

vacat, agni. Hei mihi ! quam similes ludimt per prata

juvenci,

Omnes unanimi secnm sibi lege sodales ! Nee magis hunc alio quisquani seceruit

amieum De grege; sic densi veniunt ad pabula

thoes,

Inque vicem hirsuti paribus junguntur ona- gri:

Lexeadem pelagi; desertoin littore Proteus Agmina phocarum numerat: vilisque volu-

crum ioo

Passer habet semper quicum sit, et omnia

circum

Farra libens volitet, ser6 sua tectarevisens; Queni si sors letho objecit, seu milvus

adunco Fata tulit rostro, seu stravit arundine fos-

sor,

Protinus ille alium socio petit inde volatu. Nos durum genus, et diris exercita fatis Gens, homines, aliena animis, et pectore

discors; Vix sibi quisque parem de millibus invenit

unum; Aut, si sors dederit tandem non aspera

votis, 109

Ilium inopina dies, qua non speraveris bora, Surripit, seternum linquens in saecula dam-

num. "Ite domum impasti; domino jam non

vacat, agni. Heu ! quis me ignotas traxit vagus error in

oras

Ire per aereas rupes, Alpemque nivosam ? Ecquid erat tanti Romam vidisse sepultam (Quamvis ilia foret, qualem dum viseret

olim

Tityrus ipse suas et oves et rura reliquit), Ut te tarn dulci possem caruisse sodale, Possem tot maria alta, tot interponere

montes, Tot silvas, tot saxa tibi, fluviosque so-

nantes ? 120

Ah ! certe extremum licuisset tangere dex-

tram, Et bene coinpositos placide morientis ocel-

los,

��proud withal; Chloris comes, from the stream of Chelmer: their blandishments, their soothing words, are nothing to me. Nothing in the present pleasures me, nor have I any hope for the future.

"Go to your folds unfed, my lambs; your master is troubled. Ah me ! how like one another are the herds at sport in the fields, all companions uiider a single law! No one of them seeks out a separate friend from the herd. Even so the jackals come in crowds to feed, and in varying turn the shaggy zebras pair. The same law rules on the seas, where on the desert shore Proteus numbers his drove of sea-calves. Even the sparrow, humblest of birds, has always a mate, with whom he flies in happy freedom about the barns, returning late to the nest; yet, if this mate dies, or a curve- beaked falcon slays it, or the ditcher pierces it with his arrow, straight he flutters off to find another. But we men are a diffi- cult and bewildered race, alien mind from mind, heart from heart discordant. Hardly out of a thousand does a man find one con- genial spirit; or, if fate sends one in an- swer to our prayers, yet, in an hour when we least expect it, he is snatched from us, leaving eternal loss behind.

" Go to your folds unfed, my lambs ; your master is troubled. Alas, what rest- less fancy drew me to foreign shores, across the skyey precipices of the snow-clad Alps ? What was there so precious in the sight of buried Rome (even if she had been as she was when Tityrus of old left his sheep and his fields to see her) that I could part from my sweet companion, could put between him and me so many mountains and for- ests, so many rocks and sounding rivers ? Ah, if I had stayed, I could at least have touched his hand at the last, closed his

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