It chanced one evening, (’twas the lover’s day)
  Conceal’d in brakes the jealous kindred lay;
  When Hesiod, wandering, mused along the plain,
  And fix’d his seat where Love had fix’d the scene: 
  A strong suspicion straight possess’d their mind,
  (For poets ever were a gentle kind.)
  But when Evanthe near the passage stood,
  Flung back a doubtful look, and shot the wood, 240
  ‘Now take (at once they cry) thy due reward!’
  And, urged with erring rage, assault the bard. 
  His corpse the sea received.  The dolphins bore
  (’Twas all the gods would do) the corpse to shore.

   Methinks I view the dead with pitying eyes,
  And see the dreams of ancient wisdom rise;
  I see the Muses round the body cry,
  But hear a Cupid loudly laughing by;
  He wheels his arrow with insulting hand,
  And thus inscribes the moral on the sand:  250
  ’Here Hesiod lies:  ye future bards beware
  How far your moral tales incense the fair: 
  Unloved, unloving, ’twas his fate to bleed;
  Without his quiver Cupid caused the deed: 
  He judged this turn of malice justly due,
  And Hesiod died for joys he never knew.’

* * * * *

  SONG.

  1 When thy beauty appears,
    In its graces and airs,
  All bright as an angel new dropt from the sky;
    At distance I gaze, and am awed by my fears,
  So strangely you dazzle my eye!

  2 But when without art,
    Your kind thoughts you impart,
  When your love runs in blushes through every vein;
    When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in your heart,
  Then I know you’re a woman again.

  3 There’s a passion and pride
    In our sex (she replied),
  And thus (might I gratify both) I would do: 
    Still an angel appear to each lover beside,
  But still be a woman to you.

* * * * *

  SONG.

  1 Thyrsis, a young and amorous swain,
    Saw two, the beauties of the plain;
        Who both his heart subdue: 
    Gay Caelia’s eyes were dazzling fair,
    Sabina’s easy shape and air
        With softer magic drew.

  2 He haunts the stream, he haunts the grove,
    Lives in a fond romance of love,
       And seems for each to die;
    Till each, a little spiteful grown,
    Sabina Caelia’s shape ran down,
       And she Sabina’s eye.

  3 Their envy made the shepherd find
    Those eyes, which love could only blind;
       So set the lover free: 
    No more he haunts the grove or stream,
    Or with a true-love knot and name
       Engraves a wounded tree.

  4 Ah, Caelia! (sly Sabina cried)
    Though neither love, we’re both denied;
    Now, to support the sex’s pride,
       Let either fix the dart. 
    Poor girl! (says Caelia) say no more;
    For should the swain but one adore,
    That spite which broke his chains before,
       Would break the other’s heart.