Who, with peculiar Call, and flutt'ring Wing,
Chirpt joyful, and malicious seem'd to sing:
The only Bird of all its Kind, and late
Transform'd in Pity to a feather'd State:
From whence, O Dædalus, thy Guilt we date.
His Sister's Son, when now twelve Years were past,
Was, with his Uncle, as a Scholar plac'd;
The unsuspecting Mother saw his Parts,
And Genius fitted for the finest Arts.
This soon appear'd; for when the spiny Bone
In Fishes Backs was by the Stripling known,
A rare Invention thence he learnt to draw,
Fil'd Teeth in Ir'n, and made the grating Saw.
He was the first, that from a Knob of Brass
Made two strait Arms with widening Stretch to pass;
That, while one stood upon the Center's Place,
The other round it drew a circling Space.
Dædalus envy'd this, and from the Top
Of fair Minerva's Temple let him drop;
Feigning that, as he lean'd upon the Tow'r,
Careless he stoop'd too much, and tumbled o'er.
The Goddess, who th' Ingenious still befriends,
On this Occasion her Assistance lends;
His Arms with Feathers, as he fell, she veils,
And in the Air a new-made Bird he sails.
The Quickness of his Genius, once so fleet,
Still in his Wings remains, and in his Feet:
Still, tho' transform'd, his ancient Name he keeps,
And with low Flight the new-shorn Stubble sweeps.
Declines the lofty Trees, and thinks it best
To brood in Hedge-rows o'er it's humble Nest;
And, in Remembrance of the former Ill,
Avoids the Heights, and Precipices still.
At length, fatigu'd with long laborious Flights,
On fair Sicilia's Plains the Artist lights;
Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/20
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Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Book 8.
Where
