ABSENCE AND DEATH. A PASTORAL. Elizabeth Hands (née Herbert) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T141063 Hands, Elizabeth, 1746-1815. The death of Amnon. A poem. With an appendix: containing pastorals, and other poetical pieces. By Elizabeth Hands. [Coventry] Printed for the author, by N. Rollason, Coventry, M,DCCLXXXIX. 1789 pp. 59-61. [40],127,[1]p.; 8⁰.

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ABSENCE AND DEATH . A PASTORAL . When ev'ry eye that knew no cause to weep , And peaceful minds were hush'd in pleasing sleep , Two virgin nymphs , whom Love had left forlorn , Ne'er clos'd their weeping eyes , from eve to morn : For Strephon's absence , Daphne's tears were shed , And Hebe mourn'd her faithful Collin dead ; Their sorrows were not to each other known , Alike they mourn'd , and silent was their moan ; Awhile they wept , 'till one the silence broke ; Thus Hebe answer'd , and thus Daphne spoke . Daphne . Say , gentle maid , whence spring thy anxious fears ? What inward sorrows prompt thy gushing tears ? Thy case thou safely may'st to me impart , True to my trust , and faithful from the heart ; My grief , I will suspend awhile to hear Thy tale , and shed a sympathetic tear . Hebe . And will not Daphne then her grief impart ? To tell the sorrow , is to ease the heart . Say first , why heaves thy breast that lab'ring sigh , And Hebe will alternately reply ; The plaintive sounds shall die along the vales , And neighb'ring hills resound the moving tales . Daphne . A shepherd's absence I am doom'd to mourn , While rigid fate forbids him to return ; Perhaps , like me , he mourns his forc'd delay , Perhaps some fairer maid may tempt his stay ; A while , with flattering gales of hope I steer , Then , dash'd and shipwreck'd on the rock of fear . Hebe . Young Collin did my yielding heart subdue , A forester he was , and he was true ; He vow'd his heart from me should never rove ; I heard with joy , and gave him love for love : But my dear swain , my Collin's dead , and I Now live , but only to despair , and die . Daphne . My shepherd is the choicest of the swains , That climb the hills , or traverse o'er the plains ; His radiant eyes beam forth a milder ray , Than the fair star , that leads the dawning day ; Nor are the flocks , that graze the palins , so fair As the dear swain that makes those flocks his care . Hebe . My forester was comely to behold , His looks were pleasing as the tale he told ; The frock he wore , was of a fresher green Than the gay forests , where he oft was seen ; And stately he , among his fellow swains , As the tall fir , that o'er the forest reigns . Daphne . How swift the seasons fly throughout the year , How oft the spring returns without my dear ; Yet should some blishful hour , some distant spring , My long-mourn'd Strephon to his Daphne bring ; One happy hour with him , wou'd far o'er-pay All I have suffer'd by his long delay . Hebe . No gloomy phantom has my joys o'er-cast , My hopes are wither'd by a deadly blast ; See the surrounding woods , how ev'ry tree Has dropp'd its leaves , and seems to mourn with me ; Though spring will quickly re-adorn the grove , Yet I can never hope to see my love .