Panthea: an Elegy

Long had Panthea felt Love's secret smart,
And hope and fear alternate ruled her heart;
Consenting glances had her flame confest.
(In woman's eyes her very soul's exprest)
Perjured Alexis saw the blushing maid,
He saw, he swore, he conquer'd and betray'd;
Another love now calls him from her arms,
His fickle heart another beauty warms;
Those oaths oft whisper'd in Panthea's ears,
He now again to Galatea swears.
Beneath a beach th' abandon'd virgin laid,
In grateful solitude enjoys the shade;
There with faint voice she breathed these moving strains,
While fighting Zephyrs shared her am'rous pains
Pale settled sorrow hangs upon my brow,
Dead are my charms; Alexis breaks his vow!
Think, think, dear shepherd, on the days you knew,
When I was happy, when my swain was true;
Think how thy looks and tongue are form'd to move,
And think yet more — that all my fault was love.
Ah, could you view me in this wretched state!
You might not love me, but you could not hate.
Could you behold me in this conscious shade,
Where first thy vows, where first my love was paid,
Worn out with watching, sullen with despair,
And see each eye swell with a gushing tear?
[Those eyes which oft you said were to your sight
Grateful as day and welcome as the light.]
Could you behold me on this mossy bed,
From my pale cheek the lively crimson fled,
Which in my softer hours you oft have sworn,
With rosy beauty far out-blush'd the morn;
Could you untouch'd this wretched object bear,
And would not lost Panthea claim a tear?
You could not, sure — tears from your eyes would steal
And unawares thy tender soul reveal.
Ah, no! — thy soul with cruelty is fraught,
No tenderness disturbs thy savage thought:
Sooner shall tigers spare the trembling lambs,
And wolves with pity hear their bleating dams;
Sooner shall vultures from their quarry fly,
Than false Alexis for Panthea sigh.
Thy bosom ne'er a tender thought confest
Sure stubborn flint has arm'd thy cruel breast;
But hardest flints are worn by frequent rains,
And the soft drops dissolve their solid veins;
While thy relentless heart more hard appears,
And is not soften'd by a flood of tears.
Ah, what is love! Panthea's joys are gone,
Her liberty, her peace, her reason flown!

And when I view me in the wat'ry glass,
I find Panthea now, not what she was.
As northern winds the new-blown roses blast,
And on the ground their fading ruins cast;
As sudden blights corrupt the ripen'd grain,
And of its verdure spoil the mournful plain;
So hapless love on blooming features preys,
So hapless love destroys our peaceful days.

Come, gentle sleep, relieve these wearied eyes,
All sorrow in thy soft embraces dies:

There, spite of all thy perjured vows, I find
Faithless Alexis languishingly kind:
Sometimes he leads me by the mazy stream,
And pleasingly deludes me in my dream:
Sometimes he guides me to the secret grove,
Where all our looks and all our talk is love.
Oh, could I thus consume each tedious day,
And in sweet slumbers dream my life away:
But sleep, which now no more relieves these eyes,
To my sad soul the clear deceit denies.

Why does the sun dart forth its cheerful rays?
Why do the woods resound with warbling lays?
Why does the rose her grateful fragrance yield,
And yellow cowslips paint the smiling field?
Why do the streams with murm'ring music flow,
And why do groves their friendly shade bestow?
Let sable clouds the cheerful sun deface,
Let mournful silence seize the feather'd race;
No more, ye roses, grateful fragrance yield,
Droop, droop, ye cowslips, in the blasted field;
No more, ye streams, with murm'ring music flow,
And let not groves a friendly shade bestow:
With sympathizing grief let nature mourn.
And never know the youthful spring's return:
And shall I never more Alexis see?

Then what is spring, or grove, or streams to me?

Why sport the skipping lambs on yonder plain?
Why do the birds their tuneful voices strain?
Why frisk those heifers in the cooling grove?
Their happier life is ignorant of love.
Oh lead me to some melancholy cave,
To lull my sorrows in a living grave;
From the dark rock where dashing waters fall,
And creeping ivy hangs the craggy wall,
Where I may waste in tears my hours away,
And never know the seasons or the day.
Die, die, Panthea — fly this hateful grove,
For what is life without the swain I love?