Song from the Italian, from The Kind Keeper. Songs from the Plays. John Dryden. 1913. The Poems of John Dryden

John Dryden (1631–1700). The Poems of John Dryden. 1913.

Songs from the Plays

Song from the Italian, from The Kind Keeper


BY a dismal Cypress lying,
Damon cry’d, all pale and dying,
Kind is Death that ends my pain,
But cruel She I lov’d in vain.
The Mossy Fountains	5
Murmure my 1 trouble,
And hollow Mountains
My groans redouble:
Every Nymph mourns me,
Thus while I languish;	10
She only scorns me,
Who caus’d my anguish.
No Love returning me, all my hope denying;
By a dismal Cypress lying,
Like a Swan, so sung he dying:	15
Kind is Death that ends my pain,
But cruel She I lov’d in vain.

Note 1. Murmure my in editions. [back]