Ballads | Page 6

lion near,
She
guides him thro' her wood once more,
And banishes his fear.
Here (when she brought him to his road)
Her gesture said, "we part!"

With friendship all her features glow'd,
Each movement spoke her
heart.
He shar'd her feelings. "Bless your den,"
He said, as he withdrew,

"For gratitude has fled from men,
And seems to live with you!"

THE GRATEFUL SNAKE.
BALLAD THE SEVENTH.
Ingratitude! of earth the shame!
Thou monster, at whose hated name,

The nerves of kindness ake;
Would I could drive thee from
mankind,
By telling how a grateful mind,
Once dignified a snake.
The tale is antient, and is sweet,
To mortals, who with joy repeat,

What soothes the feeling heart;
The first of virtues, that may boast

The power to soothe, and please it most,
Sweet gratitude, thou art.
The reptile, whom thy beauties raise,
Has an unquestion'd claim to
praise,
That justice will confirm!
The Muses, with a graceful pride,

May turn from thankless man aside,
To celebrate a worm!
In Arcady, grave authors write,
There liv'd a Serpent, the delight,

Of an ingenuous child;
Proud of his kindness, the brave boy.
Fed
and caress'd it with a joy,
Heroically mild.
Pleased all his gambols to attend,
The snake, his playfellow, and

friend,
Still in his sight he kept;
The reptile, ever at his side,

Obeys him waking, and with pride,
Would watch him, while he slept!
Once ere her darling was awake,
The anxious mother saw the snake,

So twin'd around his arm,
She begged her husband to convey
The
fondling serpent far away,
For fear of casual harm.
The happy father of the child,
Himself a being bravely mild,
To her
request attends;
Conscious such comrades could not part
Without
great anguish of the heart,
He fear'd to wound the friends.
They both were young, and both had shewn
Affection into habit
grown,
With feelings most acute;
Yet to a parent's duty just,
Tho'
griev'd to part them, part he must,
The point bears no dispute.
But with a tenderness of mind
That prov'd him truly not inclined,

Their friendship to destroy;
He form'd a plan, and held it good;
To
hurt as little as he could,
The Serpent, or the boy.
To sleep he both with opiates lur'd,
Then, in their slumber's bond
secur'd,
See in his arms they go!
To woody scenes, where for the
snake,
(There left entranc'd) when he shall wake,
Both food and
shelter grow.
The slumbering boy awak'd at home,
And miss'd his friend, and
wish'd to roam,
And seek the friend he miss'd:
But hearing all his
sire had done,
Soon pacified, the grateful son,
Could not such love
resist.
He promis'd, for his mother's sake,
Not to recall his exil'd snake,

Nor wander to his wood;
He was a boy of manly soul,
And true to
honour's just controul,
He made his promise good.
Nature, to these divided friends

Now in their separate lot attends;

Time decks them as he flies;
The child, a graceful stripling grows,


And freedom on the snake bestows,
A formidable size.
And now it chanc'd the Arcadian youth,
Renown'd for courage, love
and truth!
Had sought a favourite maid;
Led by her tender charms
to roam,
Forgetting distance from his home,
Abroad too late he
stay'd.
Sooner indeed he meant to start,
To save a watchful parent's heart,

And not one fear excite:
But oft, as nature's records tell,
Ere love
can utter his farewell,
Day melts into the night.
Eager to take the shortest road,
That led to his remote abode,
He
thro' a forest sped;
There, by the moon's slow rising beam,
He saw a
robber's faulchion gleam,
High brandish'd o'er his head.
A hunter's javelin in his hand,
He scorn'd the ruffian's base demand,

And made the wretch recoil;
But numbers from a thicket spring,

The youth they hem within a ring,
And threaten to despoil.
He, then alarm'd, calls loud for aid,
And sudden from the rustling
shade,
A wond'rous sound they hear.
The startled ruffians turned in
dread;
Some shriek'd, some shouted, and some fled,
Their foe
approaches near.
Against one wretch, of form uncouth,
Who basely struck the
encircled youth,
And gave his foot a wound;
This shadowy foe, of
silent tongue,
Had from his secret ambush sprung,
And beat him to
the ground,
Another, as he fled in haste,
The youth's defender then embrac'd

With such a deadly clasp;
The villain fell, and in the strife
Groan'd
out his miserable life,
In horror's speechless gasp.
Who can describe the youth's surprise,
When by the moon-beam he
descries
The source of his escape!
That aid, who crush'd his

murd'rous foes,
To meet his gratitude now rose.
And in a serpent's
shape.
"My Zoe!" (hear him now exclaim)
The child had by that fondling
name,
Been used his snake to call:
The reptile heard, and at the
sound
Began, with pitying care, around
His wounded foot to crawl.
The blood she staunch'd, with tender tongue,
Then higher to his hand
she sprung,
And lick'd with fond caress!
Her gestures all this truth
declare,
"Thy Zoe makes thy life her care,
And joys in her success!"
The wasting night now wears away;
The youth's fond mother at his
stay,
To fear maternal yields;
And doubting of some dire mischance,

She hurries, ere the morn's advance,
To seek him in the fields.
With what delight, with what amaze,
Her eye her smiling son surveys,

And rolling by his side,
A serpent of triumphant air,
Who seems
his fond regard to share,
And serve him as a