Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/141

Rh Thus on Parnassus tuneful Hesiod sung: The mountain echoed, and the valley rung; The sacred groves a fix'd attention show; The crystal Helicon forbore to flow; The sky grew bright; and (if his verse be true) The Muses came to give the laurel too. But what avail'd the verdant prize of wit, If love swore vengeance for the tales he writ? Ye fair offended, hear your friend relate What heavy judgment prov'd the writer's fate, Though when it happen'd, no relation clears, 'Tis thought in five, or five and twenty years.

Where, dark and silent, with a twisted shade The neighb'ring woods a native arbour made, There oft a tender pair for amorous play Retiring, toy'd the ravish'd hours away; A Locrian youth, the gentle Troilus he, A fair Milesian, kind Evan the she: But swelling nature in a fatal hour Betray'd the secrets of the conscious bower; The dire disgrace her brothers count their own, And track her steps, to make its author known.

It chanc'd one evening, ('twas the lover's day) Conceal'd in brakes the jealous kindred lay; When Hesiod wandering, mus'd along the plain, And fix'd his seat where love had fix'd the scene: A strong suspicion straight possess'd their mind, (For poets ever were a gentle kind.)