FRAGMENT FROM BERENICE. IF for good sport one prays and lucky gains, His nets his plough: let him at evening-fall, For let him throw his nets into the sea, And he shall draw them full as they can be. EPIGRAMS. I. THICK-GROWING thyme, and roses wet with dew Are sacred to the sisterhood divine Of Helicon the laurel, dark of hue, The Delphian laurel, Pythian Pæan, thine! For thee shall bleed the white ram which doth chew The downward hanging branch of turpentine. II. To Pan the fair-cheeked Daphnis, whose red lip To his sweet pipe the pastoral wild notes married, Offered his pipe, crook, fawn-skin, spear, and scrip, Wherein he formerly his apples carried. III. Daphnis thou sleepest on the leaf-strown ground- Up! shake off sleep, and safety find in flight. IV. Where yon oak-thicket by the lane appears, A statue newly made of fig is seen, Three-legged, the bark on still, but without ears, Witness of many a prank upon the green. A sacred grove runs round; soft-bubbling near, And the curled vine with clusters there doth float: Their sharp shrill tones the vernal blackbirds ring, And yellow nightingales take up the note, And warbling to the others sweetly sing. |