And after detailing the characteristics of the principal poets of the age, he adds:—
"Transcendent masters of the lyre!
Not to your honors I aspire;
Humbler, yet higher views
Have touched my spirit into flame;
The pomp of fiction I disclaim:
Fair Truth! be thou my muse:
Reveal in splendor deeds obscure—
Abase the proud, exalt the poor.
"I sing the men who left their home,