Page:Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry of Horace - Coningsby (1874).djvu/153



OW like you Chios, good Bullatius? what Think you of Lesbos, that world-famous spot? What of the town of Samos, trim and neat, And what of Sardis, Croesus' royal seat? Of Smyrna what and Colophon? are they Greater or less than travellers' stories say? Do all look poor beside our scenes at home, The field of Mars, the river of old Rome? Say, is your fancy fixed upon some town Which formed a gem in Attalus's crown? Or would you turn to Lebedus for ease In mere disgust at weary roads and seas? You know what Lebedus is like; so bare, With Gabii or Fidenæ 'twould compare; Yet there, methinks, I would accept my lot, My friends forgetting, by my friends forgot, Stand on the cliff at distance, and survey The stormy sea-god's wild Titanic play. Yet he that comes from Capua, dashing in To Rome, all splashed and wetted to the skin, Though in a tavern glad one night to bide, Would not be pleased to live there till he died: If he gets cold, he lets his fancy rove