With narrow frith that spurns th' impetuous surge.
Here vast Charybdis raves: here Etna rears
His infant thunders, his dread jaws unlocks,
And heaven, and earth, with fiery ruin threats.
Here many a wonder, many a scene sublime,
As on he journeys, checks the traveller's steps;
And shews, at once, a land in harvests rich,
And rich in sages of illustrious fame.
But nought so wond'rous, so illustrious nought,
So fair, so pure, so lovely, can it boast,
Empedocles, as thou! whose song divine,
By all rehears'd, so clears each mystic lore,
That scarce mankind believ'd thee born of man.
So numerous are the passages in which the descriptive powers of our poet are called forth, that the task of selection becomes difficult. I have chosen, however, a couple of scenes whose leading features are perfectly opposed, the first displaying the utmost sweetness, amenity, and repose; the second, the turbulence and fury of elemental war.
pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater Æther
In gremium matris Terraï præcipitavit ;
At nitidæ surgunt fruges, ramique virescunt
Arboribus; crescunt ipsæ, fœtuque gravantur:
Hinc alitur porro nostrum genus, atque ferarum :
Hinc lætas urbeis pueris florere videmus,
Frondiferasque novis avibus canere undique sylvas,
Hinc fessæ pecudes pingues per pabula læta
Corpora deponunt, et candens lacteus humor
Uberibus manat distentis; hinc nova proles
Artubus infirmis teneras lasciva per herbas
Ludit, lacte mero menteis percussa novellas.
Lib. i. 251.
When on the bosom of maternal earth,
His showers reduntant genial Ether pours,
The dulcet drops seem lost: but harvests rise
Jocund and lovely; and with foliage fresh,
Smiles every tree, and bends beneath its fruit.
Hence man, and beast, are nourish'd: hence o'erflow
Our joyous streets with crowds of frolic youth,
And with fresh songs th' umbrageous groves resound,
Hence the herds fatten, and repose at ease,
O'er the gay meadows, their unwieldy forms;
While from each full-distended udder drops
The frequent milk spontaneous: and hence, too,
Fed from the same pure fount, their Own wild young,
With tottering footsteps, print the tender grass,
Joyous at heart, unwearied in their sport,
The artubus infirmis, in the above quotation, throw forcibly on the eye a minute but very natural and pleasing circumstance, and which has escaped the attention of every preceding
english translator. Mr. Good has well preserved the beauty of the image
With tottering footsteps print the tender grass.
In the nervous lines which follow, and which breathe the inexorable spirit of the storm they describe, the powers of the poet have been exerted with peculiar energy.
-Venti vis verberat incita pontum,
Ingenteisque ruit naveis, et nubila differt :
Interdum rapido percurrens turbine campos
Arboribus magnis sternit, monteisque supremos
Silvifragis vexat flabris: ita perfurit acri
Cum fremitu, sævitque minaci murmure pontus.
Sunt igitur Venti nimirum corpora cœca,
Quæ mare, quæ terras, quæ denique nubila cœli
Verrunt, ac subito vexantia turbine raptant.
Nec ratione fluunt alia, stratagemque propagant,
Ac cum mollis aquæ fertur natura repente
Flumine abundanti, quod largis imbribus auget
Montibus ex altis magnus decursus aquaï:
Fragmina conjiciens sylvarum, arbustaque tota
Nec validi possunt pontes venientes aquaï
Vim subitam tolerare: ita magno turbidus imbri
Molibus incurrens validis cum viribus amnis
Dat sonitu magno stragem; volvitque sub undis
Grandia saxa, ruit quà quidquid fluctibus obstat,
Sic igitur debent Venti quoque flamina ferri:
Quæ, veluti validum flumen, cum procubuere
Quamlibet in partem, trudunt res ante, ruuntque
Impetibus crebris; interdum vertice torto
Corripiunt, rapidoque rotantia turbine portant.·
Th' excited wind torments the deep,
Wrecks the tough bark, and tears the shiv'ring clouds,
Now, with wide whirlwind, prostrating alike,
O'er the waste champain, trees, and bending blade :
And now, perchance, with forest-rending force,
Rocking the mighty mountains on their base:
So vast its fury!-But that fury flows
Alone from viewless atoms, that, combin'd,
Thus form the fierce tornado raging wild
O'er heaven, and earth, and ocean's dread domain.
As when a river, down its verdant banks
Soft-gliding, sudden from the mountain round
Swells with the rushing rain-the placid stream
All limit loses; and, with furious force,
In its resistless tide, bears down, at once,
Shrubs, shattered trees, and bridges-
Loud roars the raging flood, and triumphs still,
O'er rocks, and mounds, and all that else contends. '
So roars th' enraged wind: so, like a flood,
Where'er it aims, before its mighty tide,
Sweeps all created things: or, round, and round,
In its vast vortex curls their tortur'd forms.
It has ever been a custom, among the votaries of the Muses, to conceive themselves as under the influence of inspiration, and to address the supposed dispenser of their poetic energies, in strains the most musical and choice. Lucretius has not deviated from the established form, but, in grateful and rapturous language, frequently acknowledges the powerful impulse, and boasts the enjoyment of a theme untouched by any of the tuneful train.
Nec me animi fallit quam sint obscura, sed acri
Percussit thyrso Laudis spes magna meum cor,
Et simul incussit suavem mî in pectus amorem
Musarum: quo nunc instinctus, mente vigenti
Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante
Trita solo juvat integros accedere fonteis,
Atque haurire: juvatque novos decerpere flores :
Insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam,
Unde prius nulli velârunt tempora Musæ.
Obscure the subject, but the thirst of fame
Burns all my bosom; and thro' every nerve
Darts the proud love of letters, and the muse.
I feel the inspiring power; and roam resolv'd
Thro' paths Pierian never trod before.
Sweet are the springing founts with nectar new;
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