To learning lost, severer grief endured;
In vain might Phœbus’ ray his mind inspire,
Since Fate with torrents quenched the kindling fire:
If one this pain of living death possess’d,
It dwelt supreme, Arion! in thy breast;
When, with Palemon, watching in the night
Beneath pale Cynthia’s melancholy light,
You oft recounted those surrounding states,
Whose glory Fame with brazen tongue relates.
Immortal Athens first, in ruin spread,