Volume 5 — A SONG.
Reading edition
Set by Mr. Fishburne.
[Listen]
LONG had Damon been admir’d, By the Beauties of the Plain; Ev’ry Breast warm Love inspir’d, For the proper handsome Swain: The choicest Nymph Sicilia bred, Was won by his resistless Charms: Soft Looks, and Verse as smooth, had led And left the Captive in his Arms. But our Damon’s Soul aspires, To a Goddess of his Race; Though he sues with chaster Fires, This his Glories does deface: The fatal News no sooner blown In Whispers up the Chesnut Row; The God Sylvanus with a Frown, Blasts all the Lawrels on his Brow. Swains be wise, and check desire In it’s soaring, when you’ll woe: Damon may in Love require Thestyles and Laura too: When Shepherds too ambitious are, And Court Astrea on a Throne; Like to the shooting of a Star, They fall, and thus their shining’s gone.
