Classic Poem

Damoetas and neatherd Daphnis, Aratus, half-bearded the one, the other's chin ruddy with the down, had driven each his herd together to a single spot at noon of a summer's day, and sitting them down side by side at a water-spring began to sing. Daphnis sang first, for from him came the challenge:
See, Cyclops! Galatea's at thy flock with apples, see!
The apples fly, and she doth cry " A fool's-in-love are ye";
But with never a look to the maid, poor heart, thou sit'st and pipest so fine.
Lo yonder again she flings them amain at that good flock-dog o' thine!
See how he looks to seaward and bays her from the land!
See how he's glassed where he runs so fast i' the pretty wee waves o' the strand!
Beware or he'll leap as she comes from the deep, leap on her legs so bonny,
And towse her sweet pretty flesh — But lo where e'en now she wantons upon ye!
O the high thistle-down and the dry thistle-down i' the heat o' the pretty summer O! —
She'll fly ye and deny ye if ye'll a-wooing go,
But cease to woo and she'll pursue, aye, then the king's the move;
For oft the foul, good Polypheme, is fair i' the eyes of love.

Then Damoetas in answer lifted up his voice, singing;

I saw, I saw her fling them, Lord Pan my witness be;
I was not blind, I vow, by this my one sweet — this
Wherewith Heav'n send I see to the end, and Telemus when he
Foretells me woe, then be it so, but woe for him and his! —
'Tis tit for tat, to tease her on I look not on the jade
And say there's other wives to wed, and lo! she's jealous made,
Jealous for me, Lord save us! and 'gins to pine for me
And glowers from the deep on the cave and the sheep like a want-wit lass o' the sea.
And the dog that bayed, I hissed him on; for when 'twas I to woo
He'ld lay his snout to her lap, her lap, and whine her friendly to.
Maybe she'll send me messages if long I go this gate;
But I'll bar the door till she swear o' this shore to be my wedded mate.
Ill-favoured? nay, for all they say; I have looked i' the glassy sea,
And, for aught I could spy, both beard and eye were pretty as well could be,
And the teeth all a-row like marble below, — and that none should o'erlook me of it,
As Goody Cotyttaris taught me, thrice in my breast I spit.
So far Damoetas, and kissed Daphnis, and that to this gave a pipe and this to that a pretty flute. Then lo! the piper was neatherd Daphnis and the flute-player Damoetas, and the dancers were the heifers who forthwith began to bound mid the tender grass. And as for the victory, that fell to neither one, being they both stood unvanquished in the match.