MECENAS, atavis edite regibus,
O et præsidium, et dulce decus meum,
Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum
Collegisse juvat, metaque fervidis
Evitata rotis, palmaque nobilis
Terrarum dominos evehit ad Deos.
Hunc, si mobilium turba Quiritium
Certat tergeminis tollere honoribus ;
Illum, si proprio condidit horreo
Quidquid de Libycis verritur areis.
Gaudentem patrios findere sarculo
Agros Attalicis conditionibus
Nunquam dimoveas, ut trabe Cypria
Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare.
Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum
Mercator metuens otium et oppidi
Laudat rura sui: mox reficit rates
Quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati.
Est qui nec veteris pocula Massici,
Nec partem solido demere de die
Spernit, nunc viridi membra sub arbuto
Stratus, nunc ad aquæ lene caput sacræ.
Multos castra juvant, et lituo tubæ
Permistus sonitus, bellaque matribus
SYBIL, Sweet scion of lowly progenitors,
Source of my shame, my delight, and disquietude, -
There are who the dust of Broadway in midsummer
Joy to have stirr'd with the orbs of a curricle,
Rais'd in their thoughts to the glory of PHAËTON,
When, graz'd without clashing the hub of some tilbury,
Cheer'd with huzzas by the round-caps at Tattersall's (1).
This, when the voice of the fickle-brain'd rabblement
Sends him, for cringing, to fool them at ALBANY ;
That, has he stor'd in the lofts of his granary
All that is fann'd on the floors of green MICHIGAN.
Whose pride is the hoe, and field of his heritage,
Ne'er would you move him, by wealth like J-N J—B's, to
Double the Cape in the tallest East-Indiaman.
Merchants, while dreaming the jaws of the hurricane
Howl for their prey off the shoals of Cape Hatteras,
Sigh as they think of a farm at MANHATTANVILLE :
Soon they recruit, and, secure in their policies,
Give to the devil content and a competence.
There are who despise not draughts of bright Burgundy,
Nor scorn to spend idly some portion of sunshine,
Stretch'd now at ease 'neath the shade of a sycamore,
Now by the marge of some pebble-pav'd rivulet.
Many the war-trump, and the cannon's red thunder
(1) Broadway has its place of this name; set up, I suppose, by some ENGLISHMAN,
Detestata. Manet sub Jove frigido
Venator, teneræ conjugis immemor,
Seu visa est catulis cerva fidelibus,
Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas.
Me doctarum hederæ præmia frontium
Dîs miscent superis; me gelidum nemus,
Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori
Secernunt populo; si neque tibias
EUTERPE cohibet, nec POLYHYMNIA
Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton :
Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseres,
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.
PERSICOS odi, puer, apparatus ;
Displicent nexæ philyra coronæ :
Mitte sectari rosa quo locorum
Sera moretur.
Simplici myrto nihil adlabores
Sedulus cura; neque te ministrum
Dedecet myrtus, neque me sub arcta
Vite bibentem.
Delight, and the widowing slaughter of battle.
The hunter remains 'neath the chill sky of autumn,
Nor thinks on the kiss of the wife of his bosom,
His hounds having scented the slot of the red-deer,
Or frighted the bear from her young in the forest.
Me the green leaves which I hope to see garlanded
Part from the populace; me beauty's witchery,
Shadowy groves, and the stars of the firmament,
Lift to the skies in the joy of my fantasy ;
Blest above men should I flourish in poesy,
Blest even now in Love's visions angelical :
But if thou 'It yield me thy heart as thy kisses, I'll
Envy not MOORE, nor his houries to MAHOMET.
TO THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, ESQ.,
ANY ONE OF SOME FIFTY POETS, ENGLISH AND AMERICAN, MALE
PRITHEE, forsake this oriental bombast ;
Tropes, child, disgust one, twin'd in such profusion: Nor for true splendor rummage in the twinkling
Wreathe, if thou wilt, thy harp; but though of roses,
Be the wreath simple; not as that of WORDSWORTH ;
Shun such extreme, and fly with equal horror
Epics like SOUTHEY'S.
QUIS multa gracilis te puer in rosa
Perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
Grato, PYRRHA, sub antro?
Cui flavam religas comam,
Simplex munditiis? Heu, quoties fidem
Mutatosque deos flebit, et aspera
Nigris æquora ventis
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea,
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem
Sperat, nescius auræ
Intentata nites. Me tabula sacer
Votiva paries indicat uvida
Suspendisse potenti
Vestimenta maris deo.
(1) Mr. WORDSWORTH in Peter Bell. As Mr. WORDSWORTH is at the head of the prosaic school, and is the fittest example of the pedestris sermo, of English verse, so may SHELLEY's wilderness of flowers be considered to represent the other extreme; the would-be judges of modern poetry being enamoured of the vulgarity, childishness, and insipidity of the former style, whether spread over the barren common of Mr. WORDSWORTH's verses, or elsewhere, while the people, and their directors, the magazines and newspapers,
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