Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/123

 Book IV. The God once seiz'd, his wiles to render vain,

Stretch ev'ry nerve, and straiten ev'ry chain.

What time Sol brightens with a mid-day blaze,

And on the thirsty herbage pours his rays,

To the cool shade when panting flocks retreat,

Ourself will lead you to his secret seat,

Where you may take him, as with heat opprest,

Emerging from the flood, he sinks to rest.

But caught and bound by various shapes he'll try,

And forms of frightful beasts, to cheat your eye:

Instant a lion's tawny mane he'll wear,

A boar now bristle, now a tiger glare,

Now he'll devolve a dragon's scaly maze,

Or with sharp crackle burst forth in a blaze,

Or last in liquid lapse your hold betray,

And so glide melting from your arms away.

The more he turns himself, the God withstand

Firm and more firm, and torture ev'ry band;

Till chang'd he reassume the form, he wore,

When first you found him slumb'ring on the shore.

She spoke, and round him show'rs ambrosial shed;

O'er all his limbs the fluid fragrance spread;

From his smooth'd ringlets breathing odours came,

And strength with grace improv'd his suppled frame.

Scoopt