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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECLOGUE; DAMON C.C. THYRSIS R.R. by CHARLES COTTON

Poet Analysis

First Line: THYRSIS, WHILST OUR FLOCKS DID BITE
Last Line: I' TH' SUNSHINE OF THY CAELIA.
DAM. --
Thyrsis, whilst our flocks did bite
The smiling salads in our sight,
Thou then wer't wont to sing thy state
In love, and Chloe celebrate;
But where are now the love-sick lays
Whilom so sung in Chloe's praise?

THYR. --
'Las! who can sing? Since our Pan died
Each shepherd's pipe is laid aside:
Our flocks they feed on parched ground,
Shelter, nor water's for them found:
And all our sports are cast away,
Save when thou sing'st thy Caelia.

DAM. --
Caelia, I do confess alone
My object is of passion,
My star, my bright magnetic pole,
And only guidress of my soul.

THYR. --
Let Caelia be thy cynosure,
Chloe's my pole too, though th' obscure:
For, though her self's all glorious,
My earth 'twixt us does interpose.

DAM. --
Obscure indeed, since she's but one
To mine a constellation:
Her lights throughout so glorious are,
That every part's a perfect star.

THYR. --
Then Caelia's perfections
Are scattered; Chloe's like the sun's
United light, compacted lie,
Whence all that fell their force, must die.

DAM. --
Caelia's beauties are too bright
To be contracted in one light;
Nor does my Fair, her rays dispense,
With such a stabbing influence,
Since 'tis her less imperious will
To save her lovers, and not kill.

THYR. --
Each beam of her united light
Is, than the greatest star more bright;
And, if she stay, it is from hence,
She darts too sweet an influence,
We surfeit with't: weak eyes most shun
The dazzling glories of the sun.
Perhaps, if Caelia do not kill,
'Tis want of power, not of will.

DAM. --
I now perceive, thy Chloe's eyes
To be no stars, but prodigies:
Comets, such as blazing stand
To threaten ruin to a land:
Beacons of sulph'rous flame they are,
Symptoms not of peace, but war,
And thou I guess, by singing thus,
Thence stol'st thine @3Ignis fatuus@1.

THYR. --
As th' vulgar are amaz'd at th' sun,
When tripled by reflection;
Chloe's self, and glorious eyes
To thee seem comets in the skies.
And true, they may portend some wars
Such as 'twixt Venus, and her Mars,
But chaste: whose captivating bands
Would people, and not ruin lands.
With such a going fire I'll stray,
For who with it can lose his way?

DAM. --
The vulgar may perhaps be won
By thee to think her sun, and moon,
And so would I, but that my more
Convincing Caelia I adore.
Would we had both, that Chloe thine,
And my dear Caelia might be mine.
But if we should thus mix with ray,
In Heav'n would be no night, but day:
For we should people all the skies
With planet-girls, and starry-boys,
Chloe's a going-fire, we see,
Pray Pan, she do not go from thee.

THYR. --
Thanks, Damon, but she does, I fear,
The shadows now so long appear:
Yet if she do, we'll both find day
I' th' sunshine of thy Caelia.



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