"When Juno's charms the prize of beauty claim,
Shall aught on Earth, shall aught in Heaven contend?
Whom Juno calls to high triumphant fame,
Shall he to meaner sway inglorious bend?
"Yet lingering comfortless in lonesome wild,
Where Echo sleeps mid cavern'd vales profound,
The pride of Troy, Dominion's darling child,
Pines while the slow hour stalks its sullen round.
"Hear thou, of Heaven unconscious! From the blaze
Of glory, stream'd from Jove's eternal throne,
Thy soul, O mortal, caught th' inspiring rays
That to a god exalt earth's raptur'd son.
"Hence the bold wish, on boundless pinion borne,
That fires, alarms, impels the maddening soul;
The hero's eye, hence, kindling into scorn,
Blasts the proud menace, and defies control.
"But, unimprov'd, Heaven's noblest boons are vain:
No sun with plenty crowns th' uncultur'd vale;
Where green lakes languish on the silent plain,
Death rides the billows of the western gale.
"Deep in yon mountain's womb, where the dark cave
Howls to the torrent's everlasting roar,
Does the rich gem its flashy radiance wave?
Or flames with steady ray th' imperial ore?
"Toil deck'd with glittering domes yon champaign wide,
And wakes yon grove-embosom'd lawns to joy,
And rends the rough ore from the mountain's side,
Spangling with starry pomp the thrones of Troy.
"Fly these soft scenes. Even now, with playful art,
Love wreathes thy flowery ways with fatal snare.
And nurse th' ethereal fire that warms thy heart,
That fire ethereal lives but by thy care.
"Lo, hovering near on dark and dampy wing.
Sloth with stern patience waits the hour assign'd,
From her chill plume the deadly dews to fling,
That quench Heaven's beam, and freeze the cheerless mind.
"Vain, then, th' enlivening sound of Fame's alarms,
For Hope's exulting impulse prompts no more;
Vain even the joys that lure to Pleasure's arms,
The throb of transport is for ever o'er.