The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope

Where late was hair the shooting leaves are seen

To rise, and shade her with a sudden green.
The child Amphissus, to her bosom prest,

Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breast,

And found the springs, that ne'er till then deny'd

Their milky moisture, on a sudden dry'd.

I saw, unhappy! what I now relate,

And stood the helpless witness of thy fate,

Embrac'd thy boughs, thy rising bark delay'd,

There wish'd to grow, and mingle shade with shade.
Behold Andræmon and the unhappy sire

Appear, and for their Dryope inquire:
A springing tree for Dryope they find,
And print warm kisses on the panting rind.

Prostrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And close embrace as to the roots they grew.
The face was all that now remain❜d of thee,
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree;
Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear,
From ev'ry leaf distils a trickling tear;

And straight a voice, while yet a voice remains,
Thus thro' the trembling boughs in sighs complains.
If to the wretch'd any faith be giv❜n,

I swear by all th' unpitying pow'rs of heav'n,
No wilful crime the heavy vengeance bred ;

In mutual innocence our lives we led;

If this be false, let these new greens decay,
Let sounding axes lop my limbs away,

And crackling flames on all iny honours prey. 75.
But from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let some kind nurse supply a mother's care;
And to his mother let him oft be led,

Sport in her shades, and in her shades be fed :
Teach him, when first his infant voice shall frame
Imperfect words, and lisp his mother's name,
To hail this tree; and say, with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies:
And when in youth he seeks the shady woods,
Oh! let him fly the crystal lakes and floods,
Nor touch the fatal flow'rs; but, warn'd by me,
Believe a goddess shrin'd in ev'ry tree.
My sire, my sister, and my spouse farewell!
If in your breasts or love or pity dwell
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browsing cattle or the piercing steel.
Farewell! and since I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance at least to mine.
My son, thy mother's parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kiss to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My closing lips, and hides my hand in shades:
Remove your hands, the bark shall soon suffice
Without their aid to seal these dying eyes."

She ceas'd at once to speak and ceas'd to be, And all the nymph was lost within the tree; Yet latent life thro' her new branches reign'd, And long the plant a human heart retain❜d.

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