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IV.
Come down, Calliope, from above:
Breathe on the pipe a strain of fire;
Or if a graver note thou love,
With Phoebus' cittern and his lyre.
You hear her? or is this the play
Of fond illusion? Hark! meseems
Through gardens of the good I stray,
'Mid murmuring gales and purling streams.
Me, as I lay on Vultur's steep,
A truant past Apulia's bound,
O'ertired, poor child, with play and sleep,
With living green the stock-doves crown'd--
A legend, nay, a miracle,
By Acherontia's nestlings told,
By all in Bantine glade that dwell,
Or till the rich Forentan mould.
"Bears, vipers, spared him as he lay,
The sacred garland deck'd his hair,
The myrtle blended with the bay:
The child's inspired: the gods were there."
Your grace, sweet Muses, shields me still
On Sabine heights, or lets me range
Where cool Praeneste, Tibur's hill,
Or liquid Baiae proffers change.
Me to your springs, your dances true,
Philippi bore not to the ground,
Nor the doom'd tree in falling slew,
Nor billowy Palinurus drown'd.
Grant me your presence, blithe and fain
Mad Bosporus shall my bark explore;
My foot shall tread the sandy plain
That glows beside Assyria's shore;
'Mid Briton tribes, the stranger's foe,
And Spaniards, drunk with horses' blood,
And quiver'd Scythians, will I go
Unharm'd, and look on Tanais' flood.
When Caesar's self in peaceful town
The weary veteran's home has made,
You bid him lay his helmet down
And rest in your Pierian shade.
Mild thoughts you plant, and joy to see
Mild thoughts take root. The nations know
How with descending thunder He
The impious Titans hurl'd below,
Who rules dull earth and stormy seas,
And towns of men, and realms of pain,
And gods, and mortal companies,
Alone, impartial in his reign.
Yet Jove had fear'd the giant rush,
Their upraised arms, their port of pride,
And the twin brethren bent to push
Huge Pelion up Olympus' side.
But Typhon, Mimas, what could these,
Or what Porphyrion's stalwart scorn,
Rhoetus, or he whose spears were trees,
Enceladus, from earth uptorn,
As on they rush'd in mad career
'Gainst Pallas' shield? Here met the foe
Fierce Vulcan, queenly Juno here,
And he who ne'er shall quit his bow,
Who laves in clear Castalian flood
His locks, and loves the leafy growth
Of Lycia next his native wood,
The Delian and the Pataran both.
Strength, mindless, falls by its own weight;
Strength, mix'd with mind, is made more strong
By the just gods, who surely hate
The strength whose thoughts are set on wrong.
Let hundred-handed Gyas bear
His witness, and Orion known
Tempter of Dian, chaste and fair,
By Dian's maiden dart o'erthrown.
Hurl'd on the monstrous shapes she bred,
Earth groans, and mourns her children thrust
To Orcus; Aetna's weight of lead
Keeps down the fire that breaks its crust;
Still sits the bird on Tityos' breast,
The warder of unlawful love;
Still suffers lewd Pirithous, prest
By massive chains no hand may move.
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Descende Caelo.
Descende caelo et dic age tibia
regina longum Calliope melos,
seu uoce nunc mauis acuta
seu fidibus citharaue Phoebi.
Auditis? An me ludit amabilis 5
insania? Audire et uideor pios
errare per lucos, amoenae
quos et aquae subeunt et aurae.
Me fabulosae Volture in Apulo
nutricis extra limina Pulliae 10
ludo fatigatumque somno
fronde noua puerum palumbes
texere, mirum quod foret omnibus
quicumque celsae nidum Aceruntiae
saltusque Bantinos et aruum
pingue tenent humilis Forenti, 15
ut tuto ab atris corpore uiperis
dormirem et ursis, ut premerer sacra
lauroque conlataque myrto,
non sine dis animosus infans. 20
Vester, Camenae, uester in arduos
tollor Sabinos, seu mihi frigidum
Praeneste seu Tibur supinum
seu liquidae placuere Baiae;
uestris amicum fontibus et choris 25
non me Philippis uersa acies retro,
deuota non extinxit arbor
nec Sicula Palinurus unda.
Vtcumque mecum uos eritis, libens
insanientem nauita Bosphorum
temptabo et urentis harenas 30
litoris Assyrii uiator,
uisam Britannos hospitibus feros
et laetum equino sanguine Concanum,
uisam pharetratos Gelonos 35
et Scythicum inuiolatus amnem.
Vos Caesarem altum, militia simul
fessas cohortes abdidit oppidis,
finire quaerentem labores
Pierio recreatis antro; 40
uos lene consilium et datis et dato
gaudetis, almae. Scimus ut impios
Titanas imnanemque turbam
fulmine sustulerit caduco,
qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat 45
uentosum et urbes regnaque tristia
diuosque mortalisque turmas
imperio regit unus aequo.
Magnum illa terrorem intulerat Ioui
fidens iuuentus horrida bracchiis 50
fratresque tendentes opaco
Pelion imposuisse Olympo.
Sed quid Typhoeus et ualidus Mimas
aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu,
quid Rhoetus euolsisque truncis 55
Enceladus iaculator audax
contra sonantem Palladis aegida
possent ruentes? Hinc auidus stetit
Volcanus, hinc matrona Iuno et
nunquam umeris positurus arcum,
qui rore puro Castaliae lauit
crinis solutos, qui Lyciae tenet
dumeta natalemque siluam,
Delius et Patareus Apollo.
Vis consili expers mole ruit sua; 65
uim temperatam di quoque prouehunt
in maius; idem odere uires
omne nefas animo mouentis.
Testis mearum centimanus gigas
sententiarum, notus et integrae 70
temptator Orion Dianae,
uirginea domitus sagitta.
Iniecta monstris Terra dolet suis
maeretque partus fulmine luridum
missos ad Orcum; nec peredit 75
impositam celer ignis Aetnen,
incontinentis nec Tityi iecur
reliquit ales, nequitiae additus
custos; amatorem trecentae
Pirithoum cohibent catenae. 80
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