Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/81

They shew what manners the slow sage become,
What the brisk youth in all his sprightly bloom.
In ev'ry word and sentiment explain,
How the proud monarch differs from the swain.
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Where young Telemachus too grave appears,
Or reverend Nestor acts beneath his years.
The poet suits his speeches, when he sings,
To proper persons, and the state of things;
On each their just distinctions are bestow'd,
To mark a male, a female, or a god;
Thus when in ^[1] Heav'n seditious tumults rise,
Amougst the radiant senate of the skies,
The sire of gods, and sov'reign of mankind,
In a few words unfolds his sacred mind;
No so fair Venus; who at large replies,
And pities Troy, and counts her miseries,
Woes undeserv'd; but with contention fir'd,
And with the spirit of revenge inspir'd,

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1. Vid. Æneid. Lib. 10.

Fierce