To the bare rock, on frozen Caucasus;
The vulture,[556] the inexhaustible repast
Drawn from his vitals? Say what meant the woes
By Tantalus[HR] entailed upon his race,
And the dark sorrows of the line of Thebes?[HS]
Fictions in form, but in their substance truths,
Tremendous truths! familiar to the men
Of long-past times, nor obsolete in ours.
Exchange the shepherd's frock of native grey
For robes with regal purple tinged; convert