When, blest with ease, thy woes and wanderings end,

Teach them thy consort, bid thy sons attend;

How, loved of Jove, he crown’d our sires with praise,

How we their offspring dignify our race.


“Let other realms the deathful gauntlet wield,

Or boast the glories of the athletic field:

We in the course unrivall’d speed display,

Or through cerulean billows plough the way;

To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight,

The feast or bath by day, and love by night:

Rise, then, ye skill’d in measures; let him bear

Your fame to men that breathe a distant air;

And faithful say, to you the powers belong

To race, to sail, to dance, to chant the song.


“But, herald, to the palace swift repair,

And the soft lyre to grace our pastimes bear.”


Swift at the word, obedient to the king,

The herald flies the tuneful lyre to bring.

Up rose nine seniors, chosen to survey

The future games, the judges of the day

With instant care they mark a spacious round

And level for the dance the allotted ground:

The herald bears the lyre: intent to play,

The bard advancing meditates the lay.

Skill’d in the dance, tall youths, a blooming band,

Graceful before the heavenly minstrel stand:

Light bounding from the earth, at once they rise,

Their feet half-viewless quiver in the skies:

Ulysses gazed, astonish’d to survey

The glancing splendours as their sandals play.

Meantime the bard, alternate to the strings,

The loves of Mars and Cytherea sings:

How the stern god, enamour’d with her charms

Clasp’d the gay panting goddess in his arms,

By bribes seduced; and how the sun, whose eye

Views the broad heavens, disclosed the lawless joy.

Stung to the soul, indignant through the skies

To his black forge vindictive Vulcan flies:

Arrived, his sinewy arms incessant place

The eternal anvil on the massy base.

A wondrous net he labours, to betray

The wanton lovers, as entwined they lay,

Indissolubly strong; Then instant bears