Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/129

Past. I. Stock-Doves and Turtles tell their Am'rous pain, And from the lofty Elms of Love complain. Th' Inhabitants of Seas and Skies shall change, And Fish on shoar and Stags in Air shall range, The banish'd Parthian dwell on Arar's brink, And the blue German shall the Tigris drink: E'er I, forsaking Gratitude and Truth, Forget the Figure of that Godlike Youth. But we must beg our Bread in Climes unknown, Beneath the scorching or the freezing Zone. And some to far Oaxis shall be sold; Or try the Lybian Heat, or Scythian Cold. The rest among the Britains be confin'd; A Race of Men from all the World dis-join'd. O must the wretched Exiles ever mourn, Nor after length of rowling Years return? Are we condemn'd by Fate's unjust Decree, No more our Houses and our Homes to see? Or shall we mount again the Rural Throne, And rule the Country Kingdoms, once our own! Did we for these Barbarians plant and sow, On these, on these, our happy Fields bestow? Good Heav'n, what dire Effects from Civil Discord flow! Now let me graff my Pears, and prune the Vine; The Fruit is theirs, the Labour only mine.