Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Theocritus
By Maurice Francis Egan (1852–1924)[Born in Philadelphia, Penn., 1852. Died in New York, N. Y., 1924. From Preludes.—Songs and Sonnets. 1885.]
D
And mourning mingles with their fountains’ song;
Shepherds contend no more, as all day long
They watch their sheep on the wide, cyprus-plain;
The master-voice is silent, songs are vain;
Blithe Pan is dead, and tales of ancient wrong
Done by the gods when gods and men were strong,
Chanted to reeded pipes, no prize can gain:
O sweetest singer of the olden days,
In dusty books your idyls rare seem dead;
The gods are gone, but poets never die;
Though men may turn their ears to newer lays,
Sicilian nightingales enrapturèd
Caught all your songs, and nightly thrill the sky.