XXXI. TAYGETUS still lifts his awful brow high o'er the mouldering city of the dead, sternly sublime; while o'er his robe of snow heaven's floating tints their warm suffusions spread: and yet his rippling wave Eurotas leads by tombs and ruins o'er the silent plain, while, whispering there, his own wild graceful reeds rise as of old, when held by classic strain; there the rose laurels still in beauty wave, and a frail shrub survives to bloom o'er Sparta's grave. O! thus it is with man- -a tree, a flower, while nations perish, still renews its race; and o'er the fallen records of his power spreads in wild pomp or smiles in fairy grace. F. HEMANS. XXXI. VERTICE præteritæ sublimi monia gentis putria despiciens tollit se fronte severa Taygetus: vestemque super diffusa nivalem mobilis aetherios ducit lux mille colores. Urget adhuc trepidos taciturna per æquora campi Eurotas latices, tumulos qui proluit unda, dum graciles solito calami stridore susurrant vate sacro quales olim præsente micabant. Hic rosa cum lauru vivax decus integra servat, et brevis arbusti, tegitur qua Sparta sepulcro, frons viret: hæc sors est hominum; dum funera gentes invida corripiunt, reparant dispendia silvæ, et super imperii titulos marcentis, honores incultos pandunt, aut rident fronde, venusta. XXXII. BEYOND the Acherontian pool and gloomy realms of Pluto's rule the happy soul hath come: and hark, what music on the breeze! "Twas like the tune of summer-bees a myriad-floating hum. From spirits like himself it flowed a welcome to his blest abode, that melody of sound: and lo, the sky all azure clear, and liquid-soft the atmosphere: it is Elysian ground. XXXII. RIPAM paludis trans Acheruntiae et regna torvi Ditis inhospita, jam limen ingressæ beatum quale animæ melos aura defert ! æstate quali murmure ventilat examen alas innumeras apum, vox illa cognatæ cohortis editur, hospitiumque pandit Sedis beatæ suave canens: ubi mollis liquescit cærula sub poli innubili diffusus aer, Elysiæ per amœna vallis. To mortals, who on earth fulfil the great Olympian Father's will, are given these happy glades; where they, from all corruption free, in unrestricted liberty may dwell, etherial shades, There is no bound of time or place; each spirit moves in endless space advancing as he wills: the summer lightnings gleam not so, as life with ever-varying flow the tender bosom thrills. From SCHILLER. |