Page:The Hundred Best Poems (lyrical) in the English language - second series.djvu/75

 Timotheus, plac'd on high Amid the tuneful choir, With flying fingers touch'd the lyre: The trembling notes ascend the sky, And heavenly joys inspire. The song began from Jove, Who left his blissful seats above, (Such is the power of mighty love.) A dragon's fiery form belied the god: Sublime on radiant spires he rode, When he to fair Olympia press'd: And while he sought her snowy breast: Then, round her slender waist he curl'd, And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world. The listening crowd admire the lofty sound, A present deity, they shout around: A present deity the vaulted roofs rebound: With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres.

Chorus.With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres.

The praise of Bacchus then, the sweet musician sung: Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young: 53