Volume 1

Studies of the Greek poets / by John Addington Symonds.

  • John Addington Symonds
Date:
1877-1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies of the Greek poets / by John Addington Symonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    373/468
    And tIs ttotc (Ta, ffvpiyyi 3) Tpiir6Qr]Te ; tls S’ iirl <to?s KaAd/iois 07j(rei aropia ; t\s dpaavs ovrus ; elffen yap irveiei to era ^etAea na\ rb abv avO/xa * ax& S’ ev bovaneffcri reas tmf$6(WeT> aotSas.* Or again :— ax& S’ iv nerprjmv oBvperai Htti (numri, kovk4ti [xifj.€iTai ra aa xdAea.f There is also something very touching in the third line of this strophe :— kuvos 6 Tats ayi\ai(Tiv ipaff/jiios ou/een peXirei, ouiceV ipr]/j.a(ricrLv uirb Spvfflv T/ipevos adei, aAAa ttapa UAovTrji /jl£\os Arj6a?ov aei8et,J and in the allusion made to the Sicilian girlhood of grim Per- sephone (126-129). This vein of tender and melodious senti- ment, which verges on the concetti of modern art, seems different from the style of Enropa. To English readers, the three elegies, on Daphnis, on Adonis, and on Bion, severally attributed to Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, will always be associated with the names of Milton and Shelley. There is no comparison whatever between Lycidas and Daphnis. In spite of the misplaced apparition of St. Peter, and of the frigidity which belongs to pastoral alle- gory, Lycidas is a richer and more splendid monument of elegiac verse. The simplicity of the Theocritean dirge contrasts * “ Who now shall play thy pipe, oh ! most desired one ; Who lay his lips against thy reeds ? who dare it ? For still they breathe f thee, and of thy mouth, And Echo comes to seek her voices there.”—Leigh Hunx^ t “ Echo too mourned among the rocks that she Must hush, and imitate thy lips no longer. ”—Ibid. J “No longer pipes he to the charmed herds, No longer sits under the lonely oaks, And sings ; but to the ears of Pluto now Tunes his Lethean verse.”—Ibid. A A