When thou, possessed with Jove,

Bore sweet Europe’s garlands on thy brow

And stole her from the green Sicilian plain.

Type of the stubborn force that will not bend

To loftier art;—soul of defiant breath

That blindly stands and battles to the end,

Nerving resistance with the throes of death —

Majestic Taurus! when thy wrathful eye

Flamed brightest, and thy hoofs a moment stayed

Their march at Night’s meridian, I was born: