Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/58

Now here, now there he turns the varying song,
And draws at will the captive soul along;
Fixt on the dark event, in ev'ry sense
We feel the pleasing anguish of suspense.
When ^[1] Homer once has promis'd to rehearse
Bold Paris' fight, in many a sounding verse,
He soon perceives his readers warm desire
Wrapt in th' event, and all his soul on fire;
The poet then contrives some specious stay,
Before he tells the fortune of the day.
'Till Helen to the king and elders show,$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
From some tall tow'r, the leaders of the foe,
And name the heroes in the fields below.
^[2] When chast Penelope, to gain her end,
Invites her suitors the tough bow to bend;
(Her nuptial bed the victor's promis'd prize)
With what address her various arts she plies?
Skill'd in delays, and politickly slow
To search her treasures for her hero's bow?

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1. See Iliad 3.
2. Odyssey 21.

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