A golden column next in rank appear'd,
On which a shrine of purest gold was rear'd;
Finish'd the whole, and labour'd ev'ry part,
With patient touches of unweary'd art:
The Mantuan there in fober triumph fate,
Compos'd his pofture, and his look fedate;
On Homer still he fix'd a rev'rend eye,
Great without pride, in modeft majesty.
In living sculpture on the fides were spread
The Latian wars, and haughty Turnus dead;
VER. 196, &c.]
There faw I ftand on a pillere
That was of tinned iron clere,
The Latin Poet Virgyle,
That hath bore up a great while
The fame of pius Eneas:
And next him on a pillere was
Of copper, Venus clerke Ovide,
That hath forwen wondrous wide
The great God of Love's fame
Tho faw I on a pillere by
Of iron wrought full fternly,
The great Poet Dan Lucan,
That on his fhoulders bore up then
As bye as that I might fee,
The fame of Julius and Pompee.
And next him on a pillere ftode
Of fulphur, like as he were wode,
Dan Claudian, fothe for to tell,
That bare up all the fame of hell, &c.
Eliza ftretch'd upon the fun'ral pyre,
Eneas bending with his aged fire:
Troy flam'd in burnish'd gold, and o'er the throne
Arms and the man in golden cyphers fhone.
Four fwans fuftain a car of filver bright,
With heads advanc'd, and pinions ftretch'd for flight:
Here, like fome furious prophet, Pindar rode,
And feem'd to labour with th'infpiring God.
Across the harp a careless hand he flings,
And boldly finks into the founding strings.
The figur'd games of Greece the column grace,
Neptune and Jove furvey the rapid race:
The youths hang o'er their chariots as they run;
The fiery steeds seem starting from the stone;
The champions in diftorted poftures threat;
And all appear'd irregularly great.
Here happy Horace tun'd th' Aufonian lyre
To sweeter founds, and temper'd Pindar's fire:
Pleas'd with Alcaus' manly rage t'infuse
The fofter spirit of the Saphic Muse.
VER. 210. Four Swans fuftain, &c.] Pindar being feated in a chariot, alludes to the chariot-races he celebrated in the Grecian games. The fwans are emblems of Poetry, their foaring pofture intimates the fublimity and activity of his genius. Neptune prefided over the Ifthmian, and Jupiter over the Olympian games.
VER. 224. Pleas'd with Alcæus' manly rage t'infuse
The fofter fpirit of the Saphic Muse.
C
The polish'd pillar different fculptures grace;
A work outlasting monumental brass.
Here fmiling Loves and Bacchanals appear,
The Julian ftar and great Auguftus here.
This expreffes the mixt character of the odes of Horace: the second of these verfes alludes to that line of his,
Spiritum Graia tenuem camœnæ.
As another which follows, to
Exegi monumentum ære perennius.
The action of the Doves hints at a passage in the 4th ode of his third book,
Me fabulofæ vulture in Appulo,
Altricis extra limen Apulia,
Ludo fatigatumque fomno,
Fronde nova puerum palumbes
Texére; mirum quod foret omnibus-
Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis
Dormirem & urfis; ut premerer facra
Lauroque, collataque myrto,
Non fine Dis animofus infans.
Which may be thus english'd;
While yet a child, I chanc'd to ftray,
And in a defart sleeping lay;
The favage race withdrew, nor dar'd
To touch the Mufes future bard:
But Cytherea's gentle dove
Myrtles and Bays around me spread,
And crown'd your infant Poet's head,
Sacred to Mufic and to Love.
The Doves that round the infant Poet spread
Myrtles and bays, hung hov'ring o'er his head.
Here in a fhrine that caft a dazling light,
Sate fix'd in thought the mighty Stagyrite;
His facred head a radiant Zodiac crown'd,
And various Animals his fides furround;
His piercing eyes, erect, appear to view
Superiour worlds, and look all Nature thro'.
With equal rays immortal Tully fhone,
The Roman Roftra deck'd the Conful's throne:
Gath'ring his flowing robe, he feem'd to stand
In act to speak, and graceful ftretch'd his hand.
Behind, Rome's Genius waits with Civic crowns,
And the great Father of his country owns.
These mafly columns in a circle rise,
O'er which a pompous dome invades the skies:
Scarce to the top I stretch'd my aking fight,
So large it spread, and fwell'd to fuch a height.
Full in the midft proud Fame's imperial feat
With jewels blaz'd, magnificently great;
The vivid em'ralds there revive the eye,
The flaming rubies fhew their fanguine dye,
Bright azure rays from lively faphyrs stream,
And lucid amber cafts a golden gleam.
With various-colour'd light the pavement shone,
And all on fire appear'd the glowing throne ;
The dome's high arch reflects the mingled blaze,
And forms a rainbow of alternate rays.
When on the Goddess first I cast my fight,
Scarce feem'd her stature of a cubit's height;
But fwell'd to larger fize, the more I gaz'd,
Till to the roof her tow'ring front she rais'd.
With her, the Temple ev'ry moment grew,
And ampler Vifta's open'd to my view:
Upward the columns fhoot, the roofs afcend,
And arches widen, and long iles extend.
Such was her form, as antient bards have told,
Wings raise her arms, and wings her feet infold;
A thousand busy tongues the Goddess bears,
And thousand open eyes, and thousand list'ning ears.
Beneath, in order rang'd, the tuneful Nine
(Her virgin handmaids) ftill attend the shrine:
With eyes on Fame for ever fix'd, they fing;
For Fame they raise the voice, and tune the string;
VER. 259. Scarce feem'd her ftature, &c.]
Methought that he was fo lite,
That the length of a cubite,
Was longer than fhe feemed be;
But thus foone in a while fhe,
Her felfe tho wonderly ftraight,
That with her feet fhe th'earth reight,
And with her head fhe touchyd heaven-
VER. 270. Beneath, in order rang'd, &c.]
I heard about her throne y-fung
That all the palays walls rung,
So fung the mighty mufe, fhe
That cleped is Calliope,
And her feven fifters eke
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