Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/119

 When the wild waves subside, and tempests cease, And hush their roarings of the sea to peace; So oft' we see the interrupted strain Stop'd in the midst, - - - - and with the silent main, Pause for a space- - - -at last it glides again. When Priam strains his aged arm, to throw His unavailing jav'lin at the foe; (His blood congeal'd, and ev'ry nerve unstrung,) Then with the theme complies his artful song; Like him, the solitary numbers flow Weak, trembling, melancholy, stiff, and slow. Not so young Pyrrhus, who with rapid force Beats down embattled armies in his course: The raging youth on trembling Ilion falls, Bursts her strong gates, and shakes her lofty walls; Provokes his flying courser to his speed, In full career to charge the warlike steed; He piles the field with mountains of the slain; He pours, he storms, he thunders thro' the plain. In this the poet's justest conduct lies, When with his various subjects he complies, To sink with judgment, and with judgment rise. We