Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/46

 'Twas there, beneath a fig-tree's umbrage broad, Th' astonish'd swains with rev'rend awe beheld Thee, O Quirinus! and thy brother twin, Pressing the teat within a monster's grasp Sportive, while oft the gaunt and rugged wolf Turn'd her stretch'd neck, and form'd your tender limbs: So taught of Jove, ev'n the fell savage fed Your sacred infancies; your virtues, toils, The conquests, glories, of th' Ausonian state, Wrapp'd in their secret seeds. Each kindred soul, Robust and stout, ye grapple to your hearts, And little Rome appears. Her cots arise, Green twigs of osier weave the slender walls, Green rushes spread the roofs; and here and there Opens beneath the rock the gloomy cave. Elate with joy, Etruscan Tiber views Her spreading scenes enamelling his waves, Her huts and hollow dells, and flocks and herds, And gath'ring swains, and rolls his yellow car To Neptune's court with more majestic train. Her speedy growth alarm'd the states around, Jealous; yet soon, by wondrous virtue won, They sink into her bosom. From the plough Rose her dictators; fought, o'ercame, return'd; Yes, to the plough return'd, and hail'd their peers! For then no private pomp, no household state, The public only swell'd the gen'rous breast. Who has not heard the Fabian heroes sung? Dentatus' scars, or Mutius' flaming hand? How Manlius sav'd the Capitol? the choice Of steady Regulus? As yet they stood, Simple of life; as yet seducing wealth Was unexplor'd, and shame of poverty Yet unimagin'd—Shine not all the fields