Amid the throng of this promiscuous wood, + 

With pointed top, the taper cypress stood, + 

A tree, which once a youth, and heavenly fair, + 

Was of that deity the darling care, + 

Whose hand adapts, with equal skill, the strings + 

To bows with which he kills, and harps to which he sings. + 

For heretofore, a mighty stag was bred, + 

Which on the fertile fields of Caea fed; + 

In shape and size he all his kind excell’d, + 

And to Carthaean nymphs was sacred held; + 

His beamy head, with branches high display’d, + 

Afforded to itself an ample shade; + 

His horns were gilt, and his smooth neck was graced + 

With silver collars thick with gems enchased; + 

A silver boss upon his forehead hung, + 

And brazen pendants in his ear-rings rung; + 

Frequenting houses he familiar grew, + 

And learn’d, by custom, nature to subdue, + 

Till by degrees, of fear and wildness broke, + 

Ev’n stranger hands his proffer’d neck might stroke. + 

Much was the beast by Caea’s youth caress’d, + 

But thou, sweet Cyparissus, lovedst him best; + 

By thee, to pastures fresh, he oft was led, + 

By thee oft water’d at the fountain’s head; + 

His horns with garlands, now, by thee were tied, + 

And, now, thou on his back wouldst wanton ride; + 

Now here, now there, wouldst bound along the plains, + 

Ruling his tender mouth with purple reins. + 

’Twas when the summer sun, at noon of day, + 

Through glowing Cancer shot his burning ray, + 

’Twas then, the fav’rite stag, in cool retreat, + 

Had sought a shelter from the scorching heat: + 

Along the grass his weary limbs he laid, + 

Inhaling freshness, from the breezy shade, + 

When Cyparissus, with his pointed dart, + 

Unknowing, pierced him to the panting heart; + 

But when the youth, surprised, his error found, + 

And saw him dying of the cruel wound, + 

Himself he would have slain through desperate grief; + 

What said not Phoebus, that might yield relief: + 

To cease his mourning he the boy desired, + 

Or mourn no more than such a loss required; + 

But ho incessant grieved. At length address’d + 

To the superior powers a last request; + 

Praying, in expiation of his crime, + 

Thenceforth to mourn to all succeeding time. + 

And now of blood exhausted he appears, + 

Drain’d by a torrent of continual tears; + 

The fleshy colour in his body fades, + 

And a green tincture all his limbs invades: + 

From his fair head, where curling locks late hung, + 

A horrid bush with bristled branches sprung, + 

Which, stiffening by degrees, its stem extends, + 

Till to the starry skies the spire ascends. + 

Apollo sad look’d on, and sighing, cried: + 

“Then, be for ever what thy prayer implied, + 

Bemoan’d by me, in others grief excite, + 

And still preside at every funeral rite.” + 

Thus the sweet artist in a wondrous shade + 

Of verdant trees, which harmony had made, + 

Encircled sat, with his own triumphs crown’d, + 

Of listening birds and savages around. + 

Again the trembling strings he dext’rous tries, + 

Again from discord makes soft music rise; + 

Then tunes his voice: “Oh muse, from whom I sprung, + 

Jove be my theme, and thou inspire my song: + 

To Jove ray grateful voice I oft have raised, + 

Oft his almighty power with pleasure praised. + 

I sung the giants in a solemn strain, + 

Blasted and thunderstruck on Phlegra’s plain. + 

Now be my lyre in softer accents moved, + 

To sing of blooming boys by gods beloved, + 

And to relate what virgins, void of shame, + 

Have suffer’d vengeance for a lawless flame.” + 