No more I sing by yonder shaded stream, Where once intranc'd I fondly pass'd the day, Supremely blest, when Phaon was my theme, But wretched now, when Phaon is away!
Of all the youths that grac'd our Lesbian isle He, only he, my heart propitious found, So soft his language, and so sweet his smile, Heaven was my own when Phaon clasp'd me round!
But soon, too soon, the faithless lover fled To wander on some distant barbarous shore — Who knows if Phaon is alive or dead, Or wretched Sappho shall behold him more.
As late in fair Sicilia's groves I stray'd, Charm'd with the beauties of the vernal scene I sate me down amid the yew tree's shade, Flowers blooming round, with herbage fresh and green.
Not distant far a monument arose Among the trees and form'd of Parian stone, And, as if there some stranger did repose, It stood neglected, and it stood alone.
Along its sides dependent ivy crept, The cypress bough, Plutonian green, was near, A sculptur'd Venus on the summit wept, A pensive Cupid dropt the parting tear.
Strains deep engrav'd on every side I read, How Phaon died upon that foreign shore — Sappho, I think your Phaon must be dead, Then hear the strains that do his fate deplore:
Thou swain that lov'st the morning air, To those embowering trees repair, Forsake thy sleep at early dawn. And of this landscape to grow fonder,
Still, O still persist to wander Up and down the flowery lawn; And as you there enraptur'd rove From hill to hill, from grove to grove,
Pensive now and quite alone, Cast thine eye upon this stone, Read its melancholy moan; And if you can refuse a tear
To the youth that slumbers here, Whom the Lesbians held so dear, Nature calls thee not her own. Echo, hasten to my aid!
Tell the woods and tell the waves, Tell the far off mountain caves ( Wrapt in solitary shade ); Tell them in high tragic numbers,
That beneath this marble tomb, Shrouded in unceasing gloom Phaon, youthful Phaon, slumbers, By Sicilian swains deplor'd —
That a narrow urn restrains Him who charm'd our pleasing plains, Him, whom every nymph ador'd. Tell the woods and tell the waves,
Tell the mossy mountain caves, Tell them, if none will hear beside, How our lovely Phaon died. In that season when the sun
Bids his glowing charioteer Phoebus, native of the sphere, High the burning zenith run; Then our much lamented swain,
O'er the sunny, scorched plain, Hunting with a chosen train, Slew the monsters of the waste From those gloomy caverns chac'd
Round stupendous Etna plac'd.— Conquer'd by the solar beam At last he came to yonder stream; Panting, thirsting there he lay
On this fatal summer's day, While his locks of raven jett Were on his temples dripping wet; The gentle stream ran purling by
O'er the pebbles, pleasantly, Tempting him to drink and die — He drank indeed — but never thought Death was in the gelid draught!—
Soon it chill'd his boiling veins, Soon this glory of the plains Left the nymphs and left the swains, And has fled with all his charms
Where the Stygian monarch reigns, Where no sun the climate warms!— Dread Pluto then, as once before, Pass'd Avernus’ waters o'er;
Left the dark and dismal shore, And strait enamour'd, as he gloomy stood, Seiz'd Phaon by the waters of the wood. Now o'er the silent plain
We for our much lov'd Phaon call again, And Phaon! Phaon! ring the woods amain — From beneath this myrtle tree, Musidora, wretched maid,
How shall Phaon answer thee, Deep in vaulted caverns laid!— Thrice the myrtle tree hath bloom'd Since our Phaon was entomb'd,
I, who had his heart, below, I have rais'd this turret high, A monument of love and woe That Phaon's name may never die.—
With deepest grief, O muse divine, Around his tomb thy laurels twine And shed thy sorrow, for to morrow Thou, perhaps, shalt cease to glow —
My hopes are crost, my lover lost, And I must weeping o'er the mountains go! Ah, faithless Phaon, thus from me to rove, And bless my rival in a foreign grove!
Could Sicily more charming forests show Than those that in thy native Lesbos grow — Did fairer fruits adorn the bending tree Than those that Lesbos did present to thee!
Or didst thou find through all the changing fair One beauty that with Sappho could compare! So soft, so sweet, so charming and so kind, A face so fair, such beauties of the mind —
Not Musidora can be rank'd with me Who sings so well thy funeral song for thee!— I'll go!— and from the high Leucadian steep Take my last farewell in the lover's leap,
I charge thee, Phaon, by this deed of woe To meet me in the Elysian shades below, No rival beauty shall pretend a share, Sappho alone shall walk with Phaon there.
She spoke, and downward from the mountain's height Plung'd in the plashy wave to everlasting night.
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