Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Rape of Proserpine
5:588 Near Enna's walls a spacious lake is spread,
5:589 Fam'd for the sweetly-singing
swans it bred;
5:590 Pergusa is its name: and never
more
5:591 Were heard, or sweeter on Cayster's
shore.
5:592 Woods crown the lake; and Phoebus
ne'er invades
5:593 The tufted fences, or offends
the shades:
5:594 Fresh fragrant breezes fan the
verdant bow'rs,
5:595 And the moist ground smiles with
enamel'd flow'rs
5:596 The chearful birds their airy
carols sing,
5:597 And the whole year is one eternal
spring.
5:598 Here, while young Proserpine, among the maids,
5:599 Diverts herself in these delicious
shades;
5:600 While like a child with busy
speed and care
5:601 She gathers lillies here, and
vi'lets there;
5:602 While first to fill her little
lap she strives,
5:603 Hell's grizly monarch at the
shade arrives;
5:604 Sees her thus sporting on the
flow'ry green,
5:605 And loves the blooming maid,
as soon as seen.
5:606 His urgent flame impatient of
delay,
5:607 Swift as his thought he seiz'd
the beauteous prey,
5:608 And bore her in his sooty carr
away.
5:609 The frighted Goddess to her mother
cries,
5:610 But all in vain, for now far
off she flies;
5:611 Far she behind her leaves her
virgin train;
5:612 To them too cries, and cries
to them in vain,
5:613 And, while with passion she repeats
her call,
5:614 The vi'lets from her lap, and
lillies fall:
5:615 She misses 'em, poor heart! and
makes new moan;
5:616 Her lillies, ah! are lost, her
vi'lets gone.
5:617 O'er hills, the ravisher, and vallies speeds,
5:618 By name encouraging his foamy
steeds;
5:619 He rattles o'er their necks the
rusty reins,
5:620 And ruffles with the stroke their
shaggy manes.
5:621 O'er lakes he whirls his flying
wheels, and comes
5:622 To the Palici breathing sulph'rous
fumes.
5:623 And thence to where the Bacchiads
of renown
5:624 Between unequal havens built
their town;
5:625 Where Arethusa, round th' imprison'd sea,
5:626 Extends her crooked coast to
Cyane;
5:627 The nymph who gave the neighb'ring
lake a name,
5:628 Of all Sicilian nymphs the first
in fame,
5:629 She from the waves advanc'd her
beauteous head,
5:630 The Goddess knew, and thus to
Pluto said:
5:631 Farther thou shalt not with the
virgin run;
5:632 Ceres unwilling, canst thou be
her son?
5:633 The maid shou'd be by sweet perswasion
won.
5:634 Force suits not with the softness
of the fair;
5:635 For, if great things with small
I may compare,
5:636 Me Anapis once lov'd; a milder
course
5:637 He took, and won me by his words,
not force.
5:638 Then, stretching out her arms, she stopt
his way;
5:639 But he, impatient of the shortest
stay,
5:640 Throws to his dreadful steeds
the slacken'd rein,
5:641 And strikes his iron sceptre
thro' the main;
5:642 The depths profound thro' yielding
waves he cleaves,
5:643 And to Hell's center a free passage
leaves;
5:644 Down sinks his chariot, and his
realms of night
5:645 The God soon reaches with a rapid
flight.
Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Rape of Proserpine
5:588 Near Enna's walls a spacious lake is spread,
5:589 Fam'd for the sweetly-singing
swans it bred;
5:590 Pergusa is its name: and never
more
5:591 Were heard, or sweeter on Cayster's
shore.
5:592 Woods crown the lake; and Phoebus
ne'er invades
5:593 The tufted fences, or offends
the shades:
5:594 Fresh fragrant breezes fan the
verdant bow'rs,
5:595 And the moist ground smiles with
enamel'd flow'rs
5:596 The chearful birds their airy
carols sing,
5:597 And the whole year is one eternal
spring.
5:598 Here, while young Proserpine, among the maids,
5:599 Diverts herself in these delicious
shades;
5:600 While like a child with busy
speed and care
5:601 She gathers lillies here, and
vi'lets there;
5:602 While first to fill her little
lap she strives,
5:603 Hell's grizly monarch at the
shade arrives;
5:604 Sees her thus sporting on the
flow'ry green,
5:605 And loves the blooming maid,
as soon as seen.
5:606 His urgent flame impatient of
delay,
5:607 Swift as his thought he seiz'd
the beauteous prey,
5:608 And bore her in his sooty carr
away.
5:609 The frighted Goddess to her mother
cries,
5:610 But all in vain, for now far
off she flies;
5:611 Far she behind her leaves her
virgin train;
5:612 To them too cries, and cries
to them in vain,
5:613 And, while with passion she repeats
her call,
5:614 The vi'lets from her lap, and
lillies fall:
5:615 She misses 'em, poor heart! and
makes new moan;
5:616 Her lillies, ah! are lost, her
vi'lets gone.
5:617 O'er hills, the ravisher, and vallies speeds,
5:618 By name encouraging his foamy
steeds;
5:619 He rattles o'er their necks the
rusty reins,
5:620 And ruffles with the stroke their
shaggy manes.
5:621 O'er lakes he whirls his flying
wheels, and comes
5:622 To the Palici breathing sulph'rous
fumes.
5:623 And thence to where the Bacchiads
of renown
5:624 Between unequal havens built
their town;
5:625 Where Arethusa, round th' imprison'd sea,
5:626 Extends her crooked coast to
Cyane;
5:627 The nymph who gave the neighb'ring
lake a name,
5:628 Of all Sicilian nymphs the first
in fame,
5:629 She from the waves advanc'd her
beauteous head,
5:630 The Goddess knew, and thus to
Pluto said:
5:631 Farther thou shalt not with the
virgin run;
5:632 Ceres unwilling, canst thou be
her son?
5:633 The maid shou'd be by sweet perswasion
won.
5:634 Force suits not with the softness
of the fair;
5:635 For, if great things with small
I may compare,
5:636 Me Anapis once lov'd; a milder
course
5:637 He took, and won me by his words,
not force.
5:638 Then, stretching out her arms, she stopt
his way;
5:639 But he, impatient of the shortest
stay,
5:640 Throws to his dreadful steeds
the slacken'd rein,
5:641 And strikes his iron sceptre
thro' the main;
5:642 The depths profound thro' yielding
waves he cleaves,
5:643 And to Hell's center a free passage
leaves;
5:644 Down sinks his chariot, and his
realms of night
5:645 The God soon reaches with a rapid
flight.