Apollo Pursuing DaphneGiovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian; 1696–1770)1755–60Oil on canvas National Ga

Apollo Pursuing DaphneGiovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian; 1696–1770)1755–60Oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.As when th’ impatient greyhound slipt from far, Bounds o'er the glebe to course the fearful hare, She in her speed does all her safety lay; And he with double speed pursues the prey; O'er-runs her at the sitting turn, and licks His chaps in vain, and blows upon the flix: She scapes, and for the neighb'ring covert strives, And gaining shelter, doubts if yet she lives: If little things with great we may compare, Such was the God, and such the flying fair, She urg’d by fear, her feet did swiftly move, But he more swiftly, who was urg’d by love. He gathers ground upon her in the chace: Now breathes upon her hair, with nearer pace; And just is fast'ning on the wish’d embrace. The nymph grew pale, and in a mortal fright, Spent with the labour of so long a flight; And now despairing, cast a mournful look Upon the streams of her paternal brook; Oh help, she cry’d, in this extreamest need! If water Gods are deities indeed: Gape Earth, and this unhappy wretch intomb; Or change my form, whence all my sorrows come. Scarce had she finish’d, when her feet she found Benumb’d with cold, and fasten’d to the ground: A filmy rind about her body grows; Her hair to leaves, her arms extend to boughs: The nymph is all into a lawrel gone; The smoothness of her skin remains alone.(Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book I; trans. by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al.) -- source link

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