Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/100

To scenes inanimate proclaim their love,
Talk with a hill, or whisper to a grove.
On you they call, ye unattentive woods,
And wait an answer from your bord'ring floods.

^[1] Sometimes they speak one thing, but leave behind
Another secret meaning in the mind.
A fair expression artfully dispense,
But use a word that clashes with the sense.
^[2] Thus pious Helen stole the faithful sword,
While Troy was flaming, from her sleeping lord.
^[3] So glorious Drances tow'r'd amid the plain,
And pil'd the ground with mountains of the slain;
Immortal trophies rais'd from squadrons kill'd,
And with vast spoils ennobled all the field.

^[4] But now to mention farther I forbear,
With what strong charms they captivate the ear;
When the same terms they happily repeat,
The same repeated seem more soft and sweet.

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1. The Irony.
2. See Æneid. L. 6.
3. See Æn. 11.
4. The Anaphora.