II

Hear what British Merlin sung,
Of keenest eye and truest tongue. 
Say not, the chiefs who first arrive
Usurp the seats for which all strive;
The forefathers this land who found
Failed to plant the vantage-ground;
Ever from one who comes to-morrow
Men wait their good and truth to borrow. 
But wilt thou measure all thy road,
See thou lift the lightest load. 
Who has little, to him who has less, can spare,
And thou, Cyndyllan’s son! beware
Ponderous gold and stuffs to bear,
To falter ere thou thy task fulfil,—­
Only the light-armed climb the hill. 
The richest of all lords is Use,
And ruddy Health the loftiest Muse. 
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea,
Drink the wild air’s salubrity: 
When the star Canope shines in May,
Shepherds are thankful and nations gay. 
The music that can deepest reach,
And cure all ill, is cordial speech: 
Mask thy wisdom with delight,
Toy with the bow, yet hit the white. 
Of all wit’s uses, the main one
Is to live well with who has none.

THE TEST

(Musa loquitur.)

I hung my verses in the wind,
Time and tide their faults may find. 
All were winnowed through and through,
Five lines lasted sound and true;
Five were smelted in a pot
Than the South more fierce and hot;
These the siroc could not melt,
Fire their fiercer flaming felt,
And the meaning was more white
Than July’s meridian light. 
Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,
Nor time unmake what poets know. 
Have you eyes to find the five
Which five hundred did survive?

SOLUTION

I am the Muse who sung alway
By Jove, at dawn of the first day. 
Star-crowned, sole-sitting, long I wrought
To fire the stagnant earth with thought: 
On spawning slime my song prevails,
Wolves shed their fangs, and dragons scales;
Flushed in the sky the sweet May-morn,
Earth smiled with flowers, and man was born. 
Then Asia yeaned her shepherd race,
And Nile substructs her granite base,—­
Tented Tartary, columned Nile,—­
And, under vines, on rocky isle,
Or on wind-blown sea-marge bleak,
Forward stepped the perfect Greek: 
That wit and joy might find a tongue,
And earth grow civil, HOMER sung.

Flown to Italy from Greece,
I brooded long and held my peace,
For I am wont to sing uncalled,
And in days of evil plight
Unlock doors of new delight;
And sometimes mankind I appalled
With a bitter horoscope,
With spasms of terror for balm of hope. 
Then by better thought I lead
Bards to speak what nations need;
So I folded me in fears,
And DANTE searched the triple spheres,
Moulding Nature at his will,
So shaped, so colored, swift or still,
And, sculptor-like, his large design
Etched on Alp and Apennine.