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IX.

DIRGES AND PATHETIC

POEMS.

"For when sad thoughts possess the mind of man,

There is a plummet in the heart that weighs

And pulls us living to the dust we came from."- BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

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THE NYMPH MOURNING HER

FAWN.

THE wanton troopers, riding by,
Have shot my fawn, and it will die.
Ungentle men! they cannot thrive
Who killed thee. Thou ne'er didst
alive

Them any harm, alas! nor could
Thy death yet do them any good.
I'm sure I never wished them ill;
Nor do I for all this, nor will:
But, if my simple prayers may yet
Prevail with Heaven to forget
Thy murder, I will join my tears,
Rather than fail. But, O my fears!
It cannot die so. Heaven's King
Keeps register of every thing,

And nothing may we use in vain; Even beasts must be with justice slain, Else men are made their deodands. Though they should wash their guilty hands

In this warm life-blood which doth

part

From thine, and wound me to the heart,

Yet could they not be clean, their

stain

Is dyed in such a purple grain.
There is not such another in
The world, to offer for their sin.

It is a wondrous thing how fleet
'Twas on those little silver feet;
With what a pretty skipping grace
It oft would challenge me the race;
And, when it had left me far away,
'Twould stay and run again and
stay;

For it was nimbler much than hinds, And trod as if on the four winds.

I have a garden of my own,
But so with roses overgrown,
And lilies, that you would it guess
To be little wilderness,

And all the spring time of the year
It only loved to be there.

Among the beds of lilies I
Have sought it oft, where it should
lie,

Yet could not, till itself would rise,
Find it, although before mine eyes;
For, in the flaxen lilies' shade,
It like a bank of lilies laid.
Upon the roses it would feed,
Until its lips e'en seemed to bleed,
And then to me 'twould boldly trip,
And print those roses on my lip.
But all its chief delight was still
On roses thus itself to fill,

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