Page:Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.djvu/115

Near Cadmus' walls a plain extended lay,

Where Thebes' young princes pass'd in sport the day:

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There the bold coursers bounded o'er the plains,
While their great masters held the golden reins.
Ismenus first the racing pastime led,
And rul'd the fury of his flying steed.

"Ah me," he sudden cries, with shrieking breath,

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While in his breast he feels the shaft of death;
He drops the bridle on his courser's mane,
Before his eyes in shadows swims the plain,
He, the first-born of great Amphion's bed,

Was struck the first, first mingled with the dead.

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Then didst thou, Sipylus, the language hear
Of fate portentous whittling in the air:
As when th' impending storm the sailor fees
He spreads his canvas to the fav'ring breeze,