MORE HAWARDEN HORA.CE. AD MELPOMENEN.—(03. IV. 3.) Quasi tu, Melpomene,
semel Nascentem placid() lumine videris,
Ilium non labor Isthni ins Clarabit pugilem, non equus impiger Curru ducet Achaico Victorem, neque res bellica Deliis Ornatum foliis ducem, Quod regum tumidas con- tuderit minas, Oatendet Capitolio : Sed quae Tibur aquae fertile praefluunt Et spissae nemorum comae Fingent Aeolio carmine nobilem.
Romae principle urbinm Dignatur suboles inter amabiles Vatum ponere me choros, Et iam dente minus mordeor invido.
0, testudinis aureae Dulcem quae strepitum, Pieri, temperas, mutis quoque piscibus Donatura cycni, si libeat,
6011111D,
Totum muneris hoc tui est, Quod monstror digito praetereuntium Romanae fidicen lyrae : Quod spire et placeo, si placeo, tut= est. Tim babe who, entering on this mortal scene, Wins from Melpomene a smile serene, Will never grow into a second Sayers, Or figure in the Gentlemen v. Players.
Nor will he notoriety command By tooling the superbest four- ie-hand ; Nor rise to fame by snubbing Uncle Sam's Or Wilhelm's aggravating tele- grams.
For him no Guildhall feast nor vote of thanks ; But he shall sing, by silver Isis' banks, In accents dulcet as a turtle dove's, The birds, the groves, the "gar- den that he loves."
Even in London the " reaction- ridden " Am I by Tory tongues no longer chidden, No more calumniated as a scuttler, Since I abandoned politics for Butler.
O Muse of Song, who Wagner bad'st unfold The magic legend of the Ring of Gold, Teaching his fishlike daughters of the Rhine
To sing a swanlike melody divine—
To thee I owe it that in recent years Dissentient Liberals, freed from former fears, Forget the dangerous Dis- integrator
In Dante's friend and Horace's -'°aslator.
(3.
Previous page
