What god, what hero should I sing,
Eternal Muse, on soaring wing?
What frenzied thought my song inspire?
What living lightning of the lyre?
A hundred heroes life denied,
A hundred heroes death defied,
All glory wraps their shade around,
The fame immortal as the wound.
Proud Triumph, prodigal of praise,
Crowns merit with eternal days;
This hundred-handed Art employs,
And decks the fount with living joys;
The generous Nine with zeal comply,
Forbidding noble deeds to die.
To busy cities cares belong,
Ours be the joy of mirth and song,
Of mystic maze and storied stream,
And fancy pictured in a dream,
Where vernal flowers the wood adorn,
And count the kisses of the morn.
Dear Pleasure holds her haunt around,
Smooth Silence breathes in every sound,
Sweet minstrels warble in the groves
Their pleasing plaints and living loves;
Pied Beauty blooms, enkindling all,
From Fancy's spring to Fancy's fall.
Title artwork by Kara-Jane Senior
Poems index
Alphabetical list of poems online
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