My song

shall elder fables leave,

And of thy parent say,

That, when in heaven a favour'd guest,

He call'd the gods in turns to feast
On Sipylus, his mountain home :-
The sovereign of the ocean foam,
-Can mortal form such favour prove?—
Rapt thee on golden car above

To highest house of mighty Jove;
To which, in after day,

Came golden-haired Ganymede,

As bard in ancient story read,

The dark-wing'd eagle's prey.

And when no earthly tongue could tell
The fate of thee, invisible

Nor friends, who sought thee wide in vain,
To sooth thy weeping mother's pain,
Could bring the wanderer home again;

Some envious neighbour's spleen,

In distant hints, and darkly, said,
That in the caldron hissing red,

And on the god's great table spread,

Thy mangled limbs were seen.

But who shall tax, I dare not, I,

The blessed gods with gluttony ?--
Full oft the sland'rous tongue has felt

By their high wrath the thunder dealt ;—
And sure, if ever mortal head

Heaven's holy watchers honoured,

That head was Lydia's lord.Yet, could not mortal heart digest The wonders of that heavenly feast; Elate with pride, a thought unblest Above his nature soar'd.

F

And now, condemn'd to endless dread,-
(Such is the righteous doom of fate,)
He eyes, above his guilty head,

The shadowy rocks' impending weight :-
The fourth, with that tormented three
In horrible society !-

For that, in frantic theft,

The nectar cup he reft,

And to his mortal peers in feasting pour'd

For whom a sin it were

With mortal life to share

The mystic dainties of th' immortal board :

And who by policy

Can hope to 'scape the eye

Of him who sits above by men and gods ador'd?

For such offence, a doom severe,
Sent down the sun to sojourn here
Among the fleeting race of man ;—
Who, when the curly down began
To clothe his cheek in darker shade,
To car-borne Pisa's royal maid
A lover's tender service paid.-
But, in the darkness first he stood
Alone, by ocean's hoary flood,
And raised to him the suppliant cry,
The hoarse earth-shaking deity.--

Nor call'd in vain, through cloud and storm
Half-seen, a huge and shadowy form,

The god of waters came.—

He came, whom thus the youth address'd—"Oh thou, if that immortal breast

Have felt a lover's flame,

A lover's prayer in pity hear,

Repel the tyrant's brazen spear

That guards my lovely dame !—
And grant a car whose rolling speed
May help a lover at his need;

Condemn'd by Pisa's hand to bleed,
Unless I win the envied meed

In Elis' field of fame !

For youthful knights thirteen

By him have slaughter'd been, His daughter vexing with perverse delay.

Such to a coward's eye

Were evil augury ;—

Nor durst a coward's heart the strife essay !

Yet, since alike to all

The doom of death must fall,

Ah! wherefore, sitting in unseemly shade,

Wear out a nameless life,

Remote from noble strife,

And all the sweet applause to valour paid ?-Yes!--I will dare the course! but, thou, Immortal friend, my prayer allow !”—

Thus, not in vain, his grief he told--
The ruler of the wat❜ry space

Bestow'd a wondrous car of gold,

And tireless steeds of winged pace.—
So, victor in the deathful race,

He tam'd the strength of Pisa's king,
And, from his bride of beauteous face,
Beheld a stock of warriors spring,
Six valiant sons, as legends sing.—
And now, with fame and virtue crown'd,
Where Alpheus' stream in wat❜ry ring,
Encircles half his turfy mound,

He sleeps beneath the piled ground;

Near that blest spot where strangers move In many a long procession round

The altar of protecting Jove.

Yet chief, in yonder lists of fame,
Survives the noble Pelop's name;
Where strength of hands and nimble feet
In stern and dubious contest meet;
And high renown and honey'd praise,
And following length of honour'd days,
The victor's weary toil repays.-

But what are past or future joys?—
The present is our own!--