In On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, written in 1629, John Milton envisions the arrival of Christ as toppling the world of pagan spirits and deities. Each stanza describes the fall of a different regional or national paganism. Two stanzas are devoted to Roman religion:
The lonely mountains o'er,
And the resounding shore,
A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;
Edged with poplar pale
From haunted spring, and dale
The parting genius is with sighing sent;
With flower-inwoven tresses torn
The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
In consecrated earth,
And on the holy hearth,
The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;
In urns and altars round,
A drear and dying sound
Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;
And the chill marble seems to sweat,
While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.
* * * * * * * * *
With flower-inwoven tresses torn / The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
I think it wouldn't be like this. The nymphs of the twilight forest edges would be too pure-hearted to do anything but celebrate too, on the morning of Christ's nativity.
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