I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My clofing lips, and hides my head in fhades:
Remove your hands; the bark fhall foon fuffice
Without their aid to feal these dying eyes.
She ceas'd at once to speak, and ceas'd to be;
And all the nymph was loft within the tree;
Yet latent life through her new branches reign'd,
And long the plant a human heat retain'd.
Colla liber ferpet; fummoque cacumine condor.
Ex oculis removete manus: fine munere vestro
Contegat inductus morientia lumina cortex.
Defierant fimul ora loqui, fimul effe: diuque
Corpore mutato rami caluere recentes.
From OVID'S METAMORPHOSIS, Book XIV.
HE fair Pomona flourish'd in his reign;
Of all the Virgins of the fylvan train, None taught the trees a nobler race to bear, Or more improv'd the vegetable care.
To her the fhady grove, the flowery field,
The ftreams and fountains, no delights could yield;
'Twas all her joy the ripening fruits to tend,
And see the boughs with happy burthens bend.
The hook the bore inftead of Cynthia's fpear,
To lop the growth of the luxuriant year,
To decent form the lawless shoots to bring,
And teach th' obedient branches where to fpring.
EGE fub hoc Pomona fuit: qua nulla Latinas
Inter Hamadryadas coluit folertius hortos,
Nec fuit arborei ftudiofior altera foetûs:
Unde tenet nomen. non fylvas illa, nec amnes;
Rus amat, et ramos felicia poma ferentes.
Nec jaculo gravis eft, fed adunca dextera falce :
Qua modo luxuriem premit, et spatiantia paffim
Brachia compefcit; fiffa modo cortice virgam
Inferit; et fuccos alieno praeftat alumno,
Now the cleft rind inferted graffs receives,
And yields an offspring more than nature gives;
Now fliding streams the thirsty plants renew,
And feed their fibres with reviving dew.
These cares alone her virgin breast employ,
Averse from Venus and the nuptial joy.
Her private orchards, wall'd on every side,
To lawless fylvans all access deny'd.
How oft the Satyrs and the wanton Fawns,
Who haunt the forefts, or frequent the lawns,
The God whose enfign fcares the birds of prey,
And old Silenus, youthful in decay,
Employ'd their wiles and unavailing care,
To pass the fences, and furprize the fair?
Like thefe, Vertumnus own'd his faithful flame,
Like these, rejected by the scornful dame.
Nec patitur fentire fitim; bibulaeque recurvas
Radicis fibras labentibus irrigat undis.
Hic amor, hoc ftudium: Veneris quoque nulla cupido.
Vim tamen agreftûm metuens, pomaria claudit
Intus, et acceffus prohibet refugitque viriles.
Quid non et Satyri, faltatibus apta juventus,
Fecere, et pinu praecincti cornua Panes,
Sylvanufque fuis femper juvenilior annis,
Quique Deus fures, vel falce, vel inguine terret,
Ut potirentur ea? fed enim fuperabat amando
Hos quoque Vertümnus: neque erat felicior illis.
O quoties habitu duri mefforis ariftas
Corbe tulit, verique fuit mefforis imago!
To gain her fight a thousand forms he wears:
And firft a reaper from the field appears,
Sweating he walks, while loads of golden grain
O'ercharge the shoulders of the feeming fwain.
Oft o'er his back a crooked scythe is laid,
And wreaths of hay his fun-burnt temples shade:
Oft in his harden'd hand a goad he bears,
Like one who late unyoak'd the sweating steers.
Sometimes his pruning-hook corrects the vines,
And the loofe ftragglers to their ranks confines.
Now gathering what the bounteous year allows,
He pulls ripe apples from the bending boughs.
A foldier now, he with his fword appears;
A fisher next, his trembling angle bears;
Each shape he varies, and each art he tries,
On her bright charms to feaft his longing eyes.
A female form at laft Vertumnus wears,
With all the marks of reverend age appears,
His temples thinly spread with filver hairs;
Tempora faepe gerens foeno religata recenti,
Defectum poterat gramen verfaffe videri.
Saepe manu ftimulos rigida portabat; ut illum
Jurares feffos modo disjunxiffe juvencos.
Falce data frondator erat, vitisque putator :
Induerat fcalas, lecturum poma putares :
Miles erat gladio, pifcator arundine fumta.
Denique per multas aditum fibi faepe figuras
Repperit, ut caperet spectatae gaudia formae.
Ille etiam picta redimitus tempora mitra,
Prop'd on his staff, and stooping as he goes,
A painted mitre fhades his furrow'd brows.
The God in this decrepit form array'd,
The gardens enter'd, and the fruit survey'd;
And "Happy you! (he thus addrefs'd the maid)
"Whofe charms as far all other nymphs cut-fhine,
"As other gardens are excell'd by thine!"
Then kifs'd the fair; (his kiffes warmer grow
Than fuch as women on their fex bestow.)
Then plac'd befide her on the flowery ground,
Beheld the trees with autumn's bounty crown'd.
An elm was near, to whose embraces led,
The curling vine her swelling clusters spread :
He view'd her twining branches with delight,
And prais'd the beauty of the pleafing fight.
Yet this tall elm, but for his vine (he faid)
Had ftood neglected, and a barren shade;
Innitens baculo, pofitis ad tempora canis,
Adfimulavit anum: cultofque intravit in hortos
Pomaque mirata eft: Tantoque potentior, inquit.
Paucaque laudatae dedit ofcula: qualia nunquam
Vera dedisset anus: glebaque incurva resedit,
Sufpiciens pandos autumni pondere ramos.
Ulmus erat contra, fpatiofa tumentibus uvis :
Quam focia poftquam pariter cum vite probavit ;
At fi ftaret, ait, coelebs, fine palmite truncus,
Nil praeter frondes, quare peteretur, haberet.
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