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Verse 4

The ways of Zion do mourn - A fine prosopopoeia. The ways in which the people trod coming to the sacred solemnities, being now no longer frequented, are represented as shedding tears; and the gates themselves partake of the general distress. All poets of eminence among the Greeks and Romans have recourse to this image. So Moschus, in his Epitaph on Bion, ver. 1-3: -

Αιλινα μοι στροναχειτε ναπαι, και Δωριον ὑδωρ<-144 Και ποταμοι κλαιοιτε τον ἱμεροεντα Βιωνα.π

Νυν φυτα μοι μυρεσθε, και αλσεα νυν γοαοισθε, κ. τ. λ.

"Ye winds, with grief your waving summits bow,

Ye Dorian fountains, murmur as ye flow;

From weeping urns your copious sorrows shed,

And bid the rivers mourn for Bion dead.

Ye shady groves, in robes of sable hue,

Bewail, ye plants, in pearly drops of dew;

Ye drooping flowers, diffuse a languid breath,

And die with sorrow, at sweet Bion's death."

Fawkes.

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