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 sober triumph sate,
Compos'd his posture, and his look sedate;
On Homer still he fix'd a rev'rend eye,
Great without pride, in modest majesty.
In living sculpture on the fides were spread
The Latian wars, and haughty Turnus dead;
VER. 196, &C.]
There faw I stand 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 fowen wondrous wide
The great God of Love's fame
The faw I
pillere by
Of iron wrought full fternly,
The great Poet Dan Lucan,
That on his shoulders bore up then
As hye as that I might fee,
The fame of Julius and Pompee.
And next him on a pillere ftode
Of fulphur, like as be were wode,
Dan Claudian, fothe for to tell,
That bare up all the fame of hell, &c.
Eliza stretch'd upon the fun'ral pyre,
Æneas bending with his aged fire :
Troy flam'd in burnish'd gold, and o'er the throne
Arms and the man in golden cyphers shone.
Four swans sustain a car of filver bright,
With heads advanc'd, and pinions stretch'd for flight:
Here, like some furious prophet, Pindar rode,
And seem'd to labour with th'inspiring 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 survey the rapid race :
The youths hang o'er their chariots as they run;
The fiery steeds seem starting from the stone;
The champions in distorted postures 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 Alceus' manly rage t'infuse
The fofter spirit of the Saphic Muse.
VER. 210. Four Swans fustain, &c.] Pindar being seated in a chariot, alludes to the chariot-races he celebrated in the Grecian games. The swans are emblems of Poetry, their foaring posture intimates the sublimity and activity of his genius. Neptune presided over the Isthmian, and Jupiter over the Olympian games.
VER. 224. Pleas'd with Alcæus' manly rage t'infuse The fofter spirit of the Saphic Muse.
The polish'd pillar different sculptures grace;
A work outlasting monumental brass.
Here smiling Loves and Bacchanals appear,
The Julian star and great Augustus here.
This expresses the mixt character of the odes of Horace: the second of these verses alludes to that line of his,
Spiritum Graiæ tenuem camœna.
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 Apuliæ,
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 stray,
And in a defart fleeping lay;
The savage race withdrew, nor dar'd
To touch the Muses future bard:
Myrtles and Bays around me spread,
And crown'd your infant Poet's head,
Sacred to Music and to Love.
The Doves that round the infant Poet spread
Myrtles and bays, hung hov'ring o'er his head.
Here in a shrine 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 surround; His piercing eyes, erect, appear to view Superiour worlds, and look all Nature thro'.
With equal rays immortal Tully shone,
The Roman Roftra deck'd the Conful's throne:
Gath'ring his flowing robe, he seem'd to stand
In act to speak, and graceful stretch'd his hand.
Behind, Rome's Genius waits with Civic crowns,
And the great Father of his country owns.
These massy 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 swell'd to fuch a height.
Full in the midst proud Fame's imperial feat
With jewels blaz'd, magnificently great;
The vivid em'ralds there revive the eye,
The flaming rubies shew their sanguine dye,
Bright azure rays from lively saphyrs 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 seem'd her stature of a cubit's height;
But swell'd to larger size, 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 Vista's open'd to my view :
Upward the columns shoot, the roofs ascend,
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 lift'ning ears.
Beneath, in order rang'd, the tuneful Nine
(Her virgin handmaids) still attend the shrine :
With eyes on Fame for ever fix'd, they sing;
For Fame they raise the voice, and tune the string;
VER. 259. Scarce seem'd her ftature, &c.]
Methought that she was so lite,
That the length of a cubite,
Was longer than she seemed be;
But thus foone in a while she,
Her felfe tho wonderly straight,
That with her feet she thearth reight,
And with her head she 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 muse, she
That cleped is Calliope,
And her seven fifters eke-
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