As on the hills the shepherds trample the hyacinth under foot, and the flower darkens on the ground.
Compare Catullus, xi. 21-24:—
Think not henceforth, thou, to recall Catullus'
Love; thy own sin slew it, as on the meadow's
Verge declines, un-gently beneath the ploughshare
Stricken, a flower.
(Robinson Ellis.)
And Vergil, Aeneid, ix. 435, of Euryalus dying:—
And like the purple flower the plough cuts down
He droops and dies.