I Find It Written of Simonides

I find it written of Simonides,
That, travelling in strange countries, once he found
A corpse that lay expos’d upon the ground,
For which, with palms, he caus’d due obsequies
To be perform’d, and paid all holy fees.
Soon after this man’s ghost unto him came,
And told him not to sail, as was his aim,
On board a ship then ready for the seas.
Simonides, admonish’d by the ghost,
Remain’d behind: the ship the following day
Set sail, was wreck’d, and all on board were lost.
Thus was the tenderest Poet that could be,
Who sang in antient Greece his loving lay,
Sav’d out of many by his piety.