Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/71

 Some think they could not pass the time away, In such long narratives, and cool delay, Amidst the raging tumult of the day. But yet we hear fierce Diomed relate, The crime of bold Lycurgus, and his fate; And Glaucus talks of brave Bellerophon, Doom'd for a lawless passion, not his own; Sets forth the heroehero [sic]'s great exploits to view, How the bold chief the dire Chimæra slew, The Solymæan host, and Amazonian crew. For those surprizingsurprising [sic] fictions are design'd With their sweet falsehoods to delight the mind; The bards expect no credit should be giv'n To the bare lye, tho' authoriz'd by heav'n, Which oft' with confidence they vent abroad, Beneath the needful sanction of a god. 'Twas thus the roasted heifers of the sun Spoke o'er the fire with accents not their own; 'Twas thus Achilles' steed his silence broke, And Trojan ships in human voices spoke; As