Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/468

Because Parnassus, though a Mount divine,
Is poor as Irus,^[1] or an Irish mine.^[2][3]530

Two objects always should the Poet move,
Or one or both,—to please or to improve.
Whate'er you teach, be brief, if you design
For our remembrance your didactic line;
Redundance places Memory on the rack,
For brains may be o'erloaded, like the back.^[4]

Fiction does best when taught to look like Truth,
And fairy fables bubble none but youth:
Expect no credit for too wondrous tales,
Since Jonas only springs alive from Whales!540

Young men with aught but Elegance dispense;
Maturer years require a little Sense.
To end at once:—that Bard for all is fit^[5]
Who mingles well instruction with his wit;

1. "Iro pauperior:" a proverb: this is the same beggar who boxed with Ulysses for a pound of kid's fry, which he lost and half a dozen teeth besides. (See Odyssey, xviii. 98.)

2. 	Unlike Potosi holds no silver mine.—[MS. L. (a).]
   $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Keeps back his ingots like Is rather costive—like Is no Potosi, but	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	an Irish Mine.—[MS. L. (b).]

3. The Irish gold mine in Wicklow, which yields just ore enough to swear by, or gild a bad guinea.

4. Write but recite not, e'en Apollo's song
   Mouthed in a mortal ear would seem too long,
   Long as the last year of a lingering lease,
   When Revel pauses until Rents increase.—[MS. M. erased.]

5. To finish all.—[MS. L. (b).]
   That Bard the mask will fit.—[MS. L. (b).]