FROM Tempe's vale next ancient Peneus came, That fertile vale immortalized in fame! Where Messos' blue-eyed nymphs delight to rove, Tempe o'erhung with many a circling grove! The bay's aspiring and straight trunk he brought; The uprooted beech, with stately branches fraught; The plane, whose foliage spreads a trembling shade; The cypress tall, that lifts to heaven its head; And the fam'd tree, that wept, with sister love, The youth destroyed by the red bolts of Jove, -- All these he amply wove around the throne, And varying greens in the gay covert shone. |