Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/66

Here figur'd fights the blazing round adorn,
There his long line of heroes yet unborn.
But if a ^[1] poet of Ausonian birth,
Describes the various kingdoms of the earth,
Wide intersperst; the Medes or swarthy Moors;$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
The diff'rent natures of their soils explores,
And paints the trees that bloom on India's shores.
Of his own land regardless he appears,
Unless he praise Ausonia to the stars;
To all the rest his country he prefers,
And makes the woods of Bactria yield to her's,
With proud Panchaia; tho' her groves she boasts,
And breathes a cloud of incense from her coasts.

Hear then, ye gen'rous youths, on this regard,
I should not blame the conduct of the bard,
Who in soft numbers, and a flowing strain,
Relieves and reconciles our ears again.
When I the various implements had sung
That to the fields, and rural trade belong,
In sweet harmonious measures would I tell
^[2] How nature mourn'd when the great Cæsar fell.

---

1. Vid. Virg. Georg. Lib. 2. v. 136.
2. Ibid. Lib. 1. v. 466.

When