Classic Poem

BY THE SAME .

One summer's eve, the fair Myrtilla stray'd
To taste the coolness of the western breeze;
On ev'ry gale ambrosial sweetness play'd,
And the soft zephyrs gently fann'd the trees.

Amidst her ev'ning walk, Myrtilla heard
A rose, the loveliest of the flow'ry train,
That once the garden's proudest boast appear'd,
In sad admonitory notes complain.

Ah! see, fair nymph, she cry'd, these charms decay:
I once was fair and beautiful like thee;
No fragrant blossom open'd to the day,
That equall'd mine, or could compare with me.

Flatter'd and prais'd, I felt my beauty's pow'r,
I treated all the flow'ry race with scorn;
Till, 'mid my triumphs, in a luckless hour,
From yonder bush by Sylvia was I torn.

A few short hours I bloom'd upon her breast,
Adding new graces to her charming mien:
When (sad reverse!) what tongue can speak the rest!
She dash'd my faded beauties on the green.

But time her beauties shall, like mine, impair;
And thou, fair nymph, be warn'd, and mark my doom;
E'en thou, Myrtilla, must this ruin share,
E'en thy bright charms must lose their boasted bloom.