Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PASTORAL, by MATTHEW PRIOR


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A PASTORAL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tell, dear alexis, tell thy damon, why
Last Line: Whom present you revere, him absent praise.
Subject(s): Cambridge University; Heaven; Life; Soul; Tears; Paradise


DAMON.

TELL, dear Alexis, tell thy Damon, why
Dost thou in mournful shades obscurely lie;
Why dost thou sigh, why strike thy panting breast?
And steal from life the needful hours of rest?
Are thy kids starved by winter's early frost;
Are any of thy bleating stragglers lost;
Have strangers' cattle trod thy new-ploughed ground;
Has great Joanna, or her greater shepherd frowned?

ALEXIS.

See my kids browse, my lambs securely play,
(Ah, were their master unconcerned as they!)
No beasts (at noon I looked) had trod my ground;
Nor has Joanna, or her shepherd, frowned.

DAMON.

Then stop the lavish fountain of your eyes,
Nor let those sighs from your swoln bosom rise;
Chase sadness, friend, and solitude away,
And once again rejoice, and once again look gay.

ALEXIS.

Say what can more our tortured souls annoy,
Than to behold, admire, and lose our joy;
Whose fate more hard than those who sadly run,
For the last glimpse of the departing sun;
Or what severer sentence can be given,
Than, having seen, to be excluded Heaven?

DAMON.

None, shepherd, none:

ALEXIS.

Then cease to chide my cares!
And rather pity than restrain my tears;
Those tears, my Damon, which I justly shed,
To think how great my joys, how soon they fled;
I told thee, friend, (now bless the shepherd's name,
From whose dear care the kind occasion came,)
That I, even I, might happily receive
The sacred wealth, which Heaven and Daphnis give:
That I might see the lovely awful swain,
Whose holy crosier guides our willing plain;
Whose pleasing power and ruling goodness keep
Our souls with equal care as we our sheep;
Whose praise excites each lyre, employs each tongue;
Whilst only he who caused, dislikes the song.
To this great, humble, parting man I gained
Access, and happy for an hour I reigned;
Happy as new-formed man in paradise,
Ere sin debauched his inoffensive bliss;
Happy as heroes after battles won,
Prophets entranced, or monarchs on the throne;
But (oh, my friend! ) those joys with Daphnis flew;
To them these tributary tears are due.

DAMON.

Was he so humble then, those joys so vast?
Cease to admire that both so quickly passed.
Too happy should we be, would smiling fate
Render one blessing durable and great;
But (oh, the sad vicissitude! ) how soon
Unwelcome night succeeds the cheerful noon;
And rigid winter nips the flowery pomp of June!
Then grieve not, friend, like you since all mankind
A certain change of joy and sorrow find.
Suppress your sigh, your downcast eyelids raise,
Whom present you revere, him absent praise.





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